Cleavage stages Flashcards
What happens directly after fertilisation?
There are the first divisions of the embryo - mitotic cell cycles begin.
What is significant about the first divisions after fertilisation?
There is division with no/little increase in the overall volume of the embryo. There are short mitotic G1 and G2 phases (cell growth) and the daughter cells are smaller.
What is division after fertilisation driven by?
Maternal factors inherited from the egg such as protein and mRNA. The inheritance is not necessarily symmetrical e.g. the germ plasm.
What is a blastomere?
The name for a newly formed embryo cell.
What is cell specialisation?
When new cells have dedicated structures and functions.
What is lineage allocation?
Pathways of differentiation of the embryonic cells.
What is cell division called?
Cytokinesis.
What is the cleavage furrow?
The actomyosin ring that divides cells.
What is holoblastic cleavage?
Cleavage furrow that completely separates dividing blastomeres. This is complete cleavage. There is sparse, uniform yolk distribution.
What is meroblastic cleavage?
When only part of the blastomere is separated - incomplete cleavage. The yolk impedes membrane formation.
What is significant about the embryonic cleavage in sea urchin?
The divisions are holoblastic and the first 7 are stereotypic - the same in all sea urchin species.
What is significant about the first two divisions in the sea urchin?
They are meridional - they pass through the animal and vegetal poles.
What is significant about division 3 in the sea urchin?
It is equatorial.
What is significant about division 4 in the sea urchin?
The cells of animal tier divide meridionally.
What is significant about the blastula of sea urchins?
All the cells are the same size.
When are cell fates determined in the sea urchin?
The 60-cell stage.
What does the animal pole become at the 60 cell stage in the sea urchin?
Ectoderm - e.g. skin and neurons.
What is significant about drosophila cleavage?
It is meroblastic. and nucleus division (karyokinesis) occurs without cell division (cytokinesis).