Midterm 1 Flashcards
What was the cause of the one-eyed phenotype in the lamb?
- Cyclopamine in corn lillies
- blocks signaling of a gene called sonic hedgehog
What role does sonic hedgehog play in pattern formation?
-prevents the embryonic brain from separating into two lobes
What were the findings of Nusslein and Wieschaus? (one-eyed lamb)
- identified hedgehog in Drosophila
- When mutated, it causes a coat of spines
What were the findings of Beachy and colleagues? (one-eyed lamb)
- observed a similar phenotype in mutant mice as in the sheep
- cyclopamine interferes with the signaling pathway of hedgehog (not the biosynthesis)
How did the one-eyed lamb case lead to anti-cancer treatments?
- uncontrolled hedgehog signaling results in certain cancers
- knockdown signaling pathway by using cyclopamine as a treatment
- derivatives are used instead- less side effects
What are the characteristics of somatic cells?
- diploid
- make up skin, bones, organs
- genetic changes in these cells cannot be passed onto offspring
- divide by mitosis to give rise to diploid somatic cells
What are the characteristics of germline cells?
- diploid
- genetic changes can be passed onto offspring
- divide by meiosis to give rise to haploid gametes
- originate outside the embryo in early development before migrating to the reproductive organs of the organism
What are the functions of fertilization?
- The combining of genes derived from two parental lines -> transmit genes from parents to offspring
- Create new organisms -> initiate reactions in the egg cytoplasm that permits development to proceed
What are the four main steps associated with fertilization?
- Contact and recognition between egg and sperm
- Regulation of sperm entry into the egg: block to polyspermy
- Fusion of sperm and egg genetic material
- Activation of egg metabolism to start the developmental process
How have fish evolved to prevent the union of more than two haploid nuclei?
- Sperm can enter into egg only through the narrow opening (micropyle), while rest of the egg is covered by impermeable chorion
- Sperm can only reach the egg cytoplasm through the micropyle
How have mammals evolved to prevent the union of more than two haploid nuclei?
- Sperm has to migrate the long female reproductive tract to reach the egg
- Structural changes in zona pellucida block polyspermy
How have sea urchins evolved to prevent the union of more than two haploid nuclei?
- A fast reaction that is accomplished by an electric change in the egg plasma membrane
- A slow reaction cause by exocytosis of the cortical granules
What are the advantages of using Sea Urchin eggs to study fertilization?
- They are deuterostomes (like vertebrates)
- Eggs are easily obtained in large numbers
- Eggs are optically clear (easy to observe internal structures)
- Embryo develops in sea water (easily produced in the lab)
What are the structural differences between the mammalian and the sea urchin egg?
Sea Urchin: outer jelly layer, vitelline envelope outside PM
Mammals: outer cumulus cells (follicular cells), thick zona pellucida outside the PM
What are the 5 steps involved in egg and sperm interaction during the fertilization in the sea urchin?
- sperm contacts jelly layer
- acrosomal reaction (formation of acrosomal process)
- digestion of jelly layer
- binding to vitelline envelope
- fusion of acrosomal process membrane and egg membrane
What are the 5 steps involved in egg and sperm interaction during the fertilization in the mouse?
- sperm activated by female reproductive tract
- sperm binds zona pellucida
- acrosomal reaction
- sperm lyses hole in zona
- sperm and egg membranes fuse
What are the key differences between fertilization in the sea urchin and the mouse?
Sea Urchin: fertilization is external, sperm is activated via chemo-attractants, acrosomal reaction takes place in the jelly layer prior to interacting with the vitelline envelope, sea urch forms an acrosomal process, cortical reaction results in the formation of the fertilization membrane
Mouse: fertilization is internal, sperm is activated via capacitance, acrosomal reaction takes place post-binding to zona pellucida, no acrosomal process formed, cortical reaction (zona reaction) results in modification of receptors on zona pellucida, no fertilization membrane is formed
What are the two effects of capacitation?
- increase in flagellar activity
2. destabilization of the sperm head acrosomal membrane via the removal of sterols
What are the two functions associated with resact?
- Species-specific attraction of sperm - attracts sperm cells towards the egg in a dilute environment
- species-specific sperm activation - activates mitochondrial respiration that ultimately lead to an increase in motility of sperm cells
What is resact?
- a species- specific chemoattractant isolated from the atlantic purple sea urchin
What is the function of ZP1?
- crosslink between the two major glycoprotein strands
What is the function of ZP2?
- facilitates binding between acrosomal reacted sperm and the egg PM (secondary binding)
What is the function of ZP3?
- facilitates binding of intact sperm with the ZP
- upon binding via GaIT (sperm) and N-acetylglucosamine receptors initiates acrosomal reaction
What are the steps involved in the acrosomal reaction in sea urchins?
- Fucose sulfate rich polysaccharide in the egg jelly coat binds receptors on sperm PM
- Sperm cell becomes depolarized (Na+ influx)
- V-gated calcium channels open- influx in intracellular calcium
a) activation of Na/H increases intracellular pH -> efflux of H (activation of dynein ATPase; increase in sperm motility, extension of acrosomal process)
b) exocytosis of acrosomal vesicle (release of lytic enzymes, exposure of bindin proteins)
What are the functional differences of fast and slow block polyspermy?
Fast Block: immediate signal that one sperm has fused with the egg PM
Slow Block: to avoid sperm fusion with the egg PM after the egg’s membrane potential is restored
What are the mechanism differences between fast and slow block polyspermy?
Fast Block: transient depolarization of the egg PM, triggered by sperm-egg fusion
Slow Block: exocytosis of cortical granules; cortical granule reaction and formation of the fertilization membrane
Why should polyspermy be prevented?
- non-disjunction errors and chromosome aberrations
- ultimate death of the embryo
What are the steps of the fast reaction in sea urchins?
- Sperm fuses with egg PM and triggers a rapid influx of Na+ ions into the egg
- Flow of Na+ into the egg causes a transient depolarization across the egg PM
- Membrane potential changes from -70 mV to about +20mV
- Egg PM is restored to its normal -70mV potential within minutes of fusion as the Na+ channels close
What are the key playes involved in slow block of polyspermy?
- calcium release from ER in the egg cortex (initiated at site of sperm entry)
- corical granules fuse with the egg PM and exocytose their contents into the perivitelline space
- Mucopolysaccharides released by the corical granules form an osmotic gradient, thereby causing water to enter the perivitelline space (vitelline envelope is raised off PM)
- Cortical granule material and vitelline membrane form the fertilization membrane (physical barrier to polyspermy)
- The remaining cortical granule material forms the hyaline layer (jelly like coating between the egg PM and the fertilization membrane)
What does phospholipase C (PLC) do?
- cleaves PIP2 into DAG and IP3
- IP3 causes a release of calcium from the ER
- calcium causes; cortical granule exocytosis, restoration of mitotic cell cycle and membrane biosynthesis, activation of PKC
What does protein kinase c (PKC) do?
- activation of Na/H exchanger
- increase in intracellular pH
- activates the egg metabolism
What is the zona reaction?
- enzymes released from cortical granules modify the zona pellucida sperm receptors such that they can no longer bind sperm
(enzymes released digest sperm receptor glycoproteins ZP2 and ZP3 so that they can no longer bind sperm)
What are the characteristics of monozygotic twins?
- Identical
- develops from a single zygote, which splits and forms two embryos
- genetic clone (share 100% of their genes)
What are the characteristics of dizygotic twins?
- Fraternal
- develop from separate eggs fertilized by their own sperm
- develop independently during the same pregnancy
- share 50% of their genes
- most common (70%)
What is the third type of twin?
Sequizygotic; arise from two sperms fertilizing a single egg
What are the 5 stages of animal development?
- Gametogenesis
- Fertilization
- Cleavage
- Gastrulation
- Organogenesis
What determines the pattern of embryonic cleavage?
- the amount and distribution of yolk (Balfour’s law)
2. the position of the mitotic spindles
What is determinant cleavage?
- cell fate of daughter cell is determined
What is indeterminant cleavage?
- cell fate of daughter cell is undetermined at this stage
What does the ectoderm give rise to?
- outer epithelium
- neural tube (CNS)
- neural crest
What is the “4th” germ layer and what does it give rise to?
- peripheral neurons
- schwann cells
- melanocytes
- some of the bones and connective tissue of the face
What does the mesoderm give rise to?
- somites (muscles, cartilage and bones)
- notochord (degenerates and persists as the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs)
- circulatory system (blood, bone marrow)
- organs of urogenital system (kidney, gonads and reproductive tract)
What does the endoderm give rise to?
-primitive gut (epithelial lining of the digestive and urogenital tract, stomach, colon, liver, pancreas, lungs
What are the characteristics of protostomes?
- Blastopore become the mouth
- spiral cleavage, which is determinant
- molluscs and annelids
What are characteristics of deuterostomes?
- blastopore become the anus
- radial cleavage, which is indeterminant
- echinoderms and chordates
Why are mammals different than other deuterostomes?
- they have rotational cleavage
What is invagination?
- infolding of cell sheet into embryo
What is involution?
- inturning of cell sheet over the basal surface of an outer layer
What is ingression?
- migration of individual cells into the embryo
What is delamination?
- splitting or migration of one sheet into two sheets
What is epiboly?
- the expansion of on cell sheet over other cells
What is the primitive streak?
- transient structure that arises in the blastula and marks the start of gastrulation
What organisms get a primitive streak?
- mammals, birds, reptiles
What are the functions of the primitive streak?
- initiates germ layer formation
2. establishes bilateral symmetry
What are the steps involved in neurulation?
- Notochord signals part of neighboring ectodermal cells to form neural plate
- Neural plate bends back on itself (or forms a neural groove)
- Neural crest cells found at the borders of the neural plate come together to form neural tube
- The neural tube gives rise to the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)
How do NTD (neural tube defects) occur?
- result from the neural tube failing to close completely during the first few weeks of embryonic development