Studies in Drosophila suggest that receptor-tyrosine phosphatases are key regulators of neural development, however little is known about their expression or function in the nervous system of vertebrate embryos. In this report, we describe the expression pattern of RPTPγ during early chick embryogenesis. Transcripts are largely restricted to the developing nervous system including oculomotor, trochlear and branchiomotor populations but are absent from spinal motor neurones. RPTPγ is also detected in cells in the positions of hindbrain reticulospinal neurones, spinal commisural neurones and in cells with neuronal morphology in the ventral diencephalon. Within the peripheral nervous system transcripts are found in neuroblasts delaminating from epibranchial placodes and subsequently in placode-derived cranial ganglia. Outside the nervous system expression is detected in somites and transiently in the second branchial arch and the cranial mesenchyme.