Development Flashcards
Primordial germ cells are what? Haploid or Diploid?
Diploid
When does the egg complete its first meiosis?
At ovulation
Entry of sperm into the oocyte leads to the formation of the earliest embryo which is known as a what?
Zygote
What is distinguishing about the head of bovine sperm?
Has a spike upon it
What is the surface of the oocyte better known as?
Zona Pellucida
Sperm entry causes the zona pellucida to become impenetrable, why is this important?
Prevents polysperming (Usually do not get past more than a few divisions)
Sperm entry causes the oocyte to undergo what in order to attain a haploid chromosome number?
2nd meiosis
How is the diploid number attained in the zygotic stage?
Diploid (2N) = 1N from sperm + 1N from egg
What is initiated at the zygotic stage?
Cell division
What are cells called at the cleavage stage and how many are there?
Blastomeres - 4
How many blastomeres are in contact with the zona pellucida at the cleavage stage?
All - 4
At the cleavage stage, in mammals, what type of cell division is occurring?
Asynchronous
The 16 cell stage is also known as the what?
Morula Stage
While cells divide in the morula stage, what is conserved? How is this done?
Embryo size - cells divide but do not grow
Continued cell division makes some cells become located on the inside of the ball of cells, what are these better known as?
The inner cell mass (ICM)
No longer in contact with zona pellucida
The first differentiation event occurs in which embryonic stage?
Blastocyst Stage
How is the blastocyst cavity formed?
Cells on the outside pump fluid into the embryo
After the inner cell mass has condensed, what are the outside cells called?
Trophoblasts
Supporting tissue for the embryo
During the blastocyst stage what involving the zona pellucida occurs?
The blastocyst hatches from the zona pellucida which is digested by enzymes, the embryo will be lost if this does not occur
Where should implantation occur?
Outside of the oviduct within in the uterus
What percentage of ectopic pregnancies occur within the oviduct and what other locations can this occur?
> 90% and cervix
What is one cause of the high prevalence of ectopic pregnancy within the oviduct?
Oviduct narrowing due to infection which impedes movement
What are the complications caused by oviduct ectopic pregnancy?
Rupturing of oviduct, resulting in death of embryo (usually) and massive haemorrhaging, it is life threatening for mother and usually requires surgery
Once the trophoblast come in contact with the uterine wall, what are they induced to do?
Cells induced to divide and start to invade the endometrium
What becomes of invading trophoblast cells and those that do not?
Invading - loose their cell membrane and become multi-nuclear-synctiotrophoblasts and form a sheet like structure
Non-invading - retain membranes and called cytotrophoblasts
Once embryo becomes buried within the endometrium the inner cell mass forms two layers, what are these and where are they found?
Epiblast-columnar cells - adjacent to syncytiotrophoblast cells
Hypoblast-cuboidal cells - facing the blastocyst cavity (yolk sac)
Which cells are more totipotent, inner cell mass cells or trophoblast cells and why? What cells can these differentiate into?
ICM is more totipotent as can differentiate into all cell types other than placenta while the trophoblasts can only differentiate into placental cells
What do the epiblast and hypoblast cells form? What does these structures form within the adult?
Epiblast - Ectoderm (Dif. into all neural tissues), Mesoderm (Dif. into muscle, bones, organs etc.) and Endoderm (Dif. into lining of gut and derivatives)
Hypoblast - Supporting membranes and forms no adult tissue
Majority of animals are bilateria, therefore they all have what?
3 germ layers
Mirror image symmetry
Two defined axis at right angles to each other (dorsal-ventral and anterior-posterior)
How many germ layers do jellyfish and sponges have?
2
What is promoted by an animal being bilateral?
Formation of a head and central nervous system - necessary to help animals coordinate movement and become successful predators
In drosophila, the anterior and posterior ends are defined by the expression of two maternal genes each, what are these genes that are translated into protein that act as transcription factors?
Anterior - bicoid and hunchback genes
Posterior - nonos and caudal genes
What are morphogens?
Molecules that tell the cells within the embryo what to do, they have one function at high concentrations and one function at low concentrations, these gradients appear throughout the embryo
In the mouse and drosophila, when is the anterior-posterior axis established, before or after fertilisation?
Mouse - after fertilisation
Drosophila - before fertilisation
In drosophila, during the formation of the dorsal-ventral axis, the transcription factor Dorsal move into the nucleus of which side only?
Ventral
Activates and suppresses transcription of specific genes
In xenopus, the dorsal-ventral axis is established rapidly after fertilisation, what is the maternal effect gene that is restricted within the oocyte and moves following fertilisation? Where does this factor move to following fertilisation?
Dishevelled (dsh) and following fertilisation, dsh moves to the dorsal side of the oocyte
What effect does Dishevelled have on what enzyme that normally breaks down beta-catenin?
dsh inhibits the enzyme activity of GSK3beta, which normally breaks down beta-catenin
(therefore, dsh on dorsal side results in increased beta-catenin on the dorsal side)
When beta-catenin moves into the nucleus on the dorsal side of the xenopus embryo, it activates the expression of which gene?
Siamois
In xenopus, if beta-catenin builds up on both the dorsal and ventral side of the embryo what occurs?
a double dorsal forms resulting in two heads and no gut
In drosophila, what are the four different groups of segmentation genes, what order are they expressed and what do they do in the drosophila embryo?
First - Gap genes - divide embryo into four broad domains
Second - Pair-rule genes - divide into the fourteen subunits
Third - Segment polarity genes - divides each subunit into anterior and posterior domains
Forth - homeotic selector genes - determines the fate of each segment
Are gap genes maternal or zygotic?
zygotic - produced by embryo
Name 3 of the 5 transcription factors encoded by gap genes in the drosophila
Hunchback, Giant, Kruppel, Knirps, Tailless
What genes control the expression of gap genes?
Maternal Effect Genes
Name four transcription factor encoded by pair rule genes?
Hairy, even-skipped, runt, fushi tarazu, odd-skipped and paired
how many segments do pair-rule genes split the drosophila embryo into?
14
What controls the expression of pair-rule genes?
Gap genes
Segment polarity genes consist mainly of signalling molecules, name two examples?
hedgehog and Wingless
What is the function of segment polarity genes and what controls their expression?
Divide each segment of drosophila embryo into an anterior and posterior region - expression controlled by pair-rule genes and then mutual repression
In the drosophila embryo after expression of segment polarity genes, the signalling molecule hedgehog is found in which region of the individual segments?
Anterior
Define the process of homeosis?
Transformation of a whole segment or structure into a related one
What are the homeotic complex (Hom-C0) also known as?
Hox genes
What does the deletion of the Hoxc* in the mouse do in relation to the patterning along the anterior-posterior axis?
Transforms the first lumbar vertebrae into one of thoracic characteristics (homeotic transformation)
What effects does the knockout of Hox10aaccdd and Hox11aaccdd have on the anterior-posterior patterning in mice?
Hox10aaccdd - Lumbar converted to Thoracic
Hox11aaccdd - Sacral converted to Lumbar
What genes dictate the type of vertebrae formed along the anterior-posterior axis?
Hox genes
Which types of vertebrae i.e. anterior (cervical + thoracic) and posterior (lumbar, caudal + sacral) are more coded by Hox genes?
Anterior
What are the adult derivatives of somites?
Axial skeleton, vertebrae, ribs, skeletal muscle: body and limb, dermis
From what are somites formed from? Intermediate mesoderm, Midline mesoderm, Paraxial mesoderm or Lateral plate mesoderm?
Paraxial mesoderm
Name the two derivatives of somites and the subsequent derivatives from these two products?
Sclerotome : Axial skeleton, ribs and vertebrae
Dermomyotome : dermatome (dermis), myotome (skeletal muscle: body and limb)
What effect does temperature have on cell division of the presomitic mesoderm?
Affects the frequency of generation of somites, but the final somite number remains constant
Is environment important in somitogenesis and what evidence is there to support this?
No, isolated presomitic mesoderm in culture still develops somites so the environment is not important
Is the number of cells in the presomitic mesoderm important? what evidence is there to support this?
No, if remove a slice of presomitic mesoderm, somites still form at a normal rate - only smaller in size
How are somites formed at regular intervals?
Hairy is expressed in periodic intervals corresponding to the appearance of a new somite
Each cell expresses hairy 12 times as it moves towards the anterior presomitic mesoderm, after which it forms part of a somite
How are the boundaries between somites defined?
Fgf8 is expressed in cells in and around the node, as these cells move in a rostral direction during gastrulation, the Fgf8 mRNA is degraded creating a gradient: low Fgf8, rostral and high Fgf8, caudal
At a specific threshold level, somite formation occurs. This results in the successive definition of where a somite starts to form in the presomitic mesoderm
Describe the state of somites I to III?
the somite is an epithelial ball surrounding cells that remain mesenchymal, called somitocoel cells