Exam 3 - Development of multicellular organisms 1 Flashcards
What is the general or basic vwie of development of Multicellular organisms?
- All organisms begin life as a single cell
- Divide, proliferate, differentiate into different cell types
- Genome of all cells in an organism are identical but the expression of genes is different
- Differential gene expression controls development
What is the cell memory?
- A record of signals that each cell has from their ancesters recieved during embryonic development
- Genes expressed by cell depend on environment of both past and present
True or False the basic machinary for development are interchangeable.
True; Homologous proteisnare functionaly interchangable
What are the conserved mechanism for development?
- Post fertilization, the zygote rapidly divides
- these cells are dependent on food stored in egg by the mother
- Genome is inactive
- Later the genome becomes activated and cells divide and cohere to form a blastula
- hollow filled ball of cells
- Blastula then undergoes massive rearrangemnts to form gastrula
- comprised of three major layers:
- ecto-, meso- . and endo- derms
- comprised of three major layers:
What is the name of the process that forms the gastrula and what are the derivatives of three laers formed?
- Blastula undergoes Gastrulation
- Transformation of the blastula into a layered structure with a gut
- Ectoderm
- Sheet of epithelial cells facing the external medium
- precursor of the nervous system and epidermis
- becomes tucked in and forms endoderm
- Endoderm
- precursor of gut, lung, and liver
- cells move into space betweem endo and ect
- Mesoderm
- precursoe of muscles and connective tissue
What is the structure of the basic animal body plan?
How similiar are the Fruitfly, nematode, and human and how what may this similiar be due to?
- Based on the reconizable homologs
- 50% of genes are shared
- higher organism have several homologs of the same gene
- Gene duplication
- Gene regulatory proteins are the most important for development
Why is non-coding regulatory DNA so important?
- Instructions for producign a multicellular organism are contained in non coding regulatory DNA.
- Contains regulatory elements that serve as binding sites for gene regulatory proteins
- defines sequential program for development
- Coding sequences in DNA similiar in most organism BUT non coding sequences make one organism different from another and provide uniqueness
What is difference between difing a cell as determined, completely undetermined, and committed?
- Cells make developmental decisions long before they show any outward sigs of differentiation
- cells that are fated to develope into a specialized cell type despite changes in environment are called determined
- cells that can change rapidly due to alteration in environment are called completely undetermined
- Cels that have some attributes of a particular cell type but can change with environment are called committed
What is the positional value of a cell?
- Before acquiring a particular fate, cells express genes that are markers of their location ; they are regionally determined
- position specfific character of cell = POSITIONAL VALUE
- cells retain memory of positional value
What is asymmetric division?
- Cells become different due to asymmetric division
- significant sets of molecules distributed unequally between daughter cells
- Cells born the same can become different due to change in environment after birth (different molecules are induced )
- These molcules then directly or indirectly alter pattern of gene expression between the 2 cells
What is inductive signaling?
- It is when a signal induces a change in a few cells that is limited to time and space
- Inductive cell signaling occurs when a cell Incorpates different developmental characteristic(s) in homogenous group that leads to an alterations in cells differentiation
- most important environmental cues are signals from neighboring cells
- types of signals
- short range = cell to cell
- Long range : substances that can difuse through the extracellular emdium
What is a morphogen?
- A long range inductive signal that imposes a pattern on a field of cells
- exerts a gradedt of effects by forming gradients of varying concentration
- Each concentration can direct the target cell in a different developmental pathway
- Gradient is formed by
- localized production of an inducer that diffuses away from its source
- localized production of an inhibitor that diffuese away from its source and blocks the action of a uniformly distributed inducer
- On and Off system
- Antagonists or extracellular inhibtors bind to the signal or its receptor and block interaction
what is lateral ingibition and postive feedback?
- system starts off homogenous and symmetrical
- environment imposes weak asymmetry
- postivive feedback amplifies effect
- broken asymmetry is all or non phenomenon
- irreversible - once achievved external signal becomes irrevelent
- EX: delta notch signaling
What are the underlying factors in diversity of patterns?
- Combinatorial control
- response of a cell to a given signal may differ based on presence of other signals (combinations create variety)
- Cell memory
- effect of a given signal depends on previous experiences of the cell (which may have altered its chromatin, regulatory proteins, trascription and RNA)
- Sequential induction
- different signals formed/ secreted in a spatial and temporal manner