Neural Induction Flashcards

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1
Q

What characteristics of zebrafish make it a good model organism for studying developmental biology?

A
  1. genetics are easy to modify
  2. transparent while they develop, so they are easy to image
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2
Q

What characteristics of C. elegans make it a good model organism for studying developmental biology?

A
  1. simple and well-understood
  2. well-characterized nervous system
  3. transparent while they develop, useful for imaging
  4. short life cycle which makes them easy to manipulate genetically
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3
Q

Why are mice used as a common model organism in developmental biology?

A
  1. closely related to humans
  2. good models for disease
  3. easy to perform behavioural experiments on them
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4
Q

Why are Xenopus laevis commonly used to study developmental biology?

A
  1. easy to find in the wild
  2. easy to get gametes from and easy gametes to grow in a dish
  3. have large eggs - optimal for injection and heal quickly
  4. eggs develop externally - easy to harvest
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5
Q

In the blastula stage, why are the cells at the animal pole smaller than the cells at the vegetal pole?

A

Animal pole cells have been cleaved more times

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6
Q

There is very little transcription of different genes in the xenopus embryo until this developmental stage

A

The mid blastula stage

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7
Q

Describe the cleavage of the cells of the xenopus blastula

A

Rapid synchronous cleavage which happens radially

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8
Q

The blastocoel appears at this stage in embryonic development

A

Blastula stage

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9
Q

What is specified by the end of the late blastula stage?

A

3 germ layers

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10
Q

At the end of the late blastula stage, what are the 3 groups of cells present, and what are their cell fates?

A
  1. animal cap cells > ectoderm
  2. marginal cells > mesoderm
  3. vegetal cells > endoderm
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11
Q

What is a key difference in the early development of xenopus and humans?

A

Humans have equivalent structures to amphibians, but we have a flat sheet of cells as opposed to a sphere of cells

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12
Q

Which population of cells slides under the dorsal lip during the cellular reorganization of gastrulation?

A

Animal cells

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13
Q

Why is the generation of asymmetry relevant at the blastula stage?

A

Generation of asymmetry is the basis of later cellular fate determination

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14
Q

The ectoderm later goes on to become these 2 important systems

A

Epidermis
CNS

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15
Q

What is the ultimate cell fate of the cells which make up the blastula mesoderm?

A

Will become muscle and blood cells, among other “middle body” cells

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16
Q

What is the ultimate cell fate of the cells which make up the blastula endoderm?

A

Cells of the gut

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17
Q

Describe neurulation

A

A flat sheet of neural tissue-destined cells fold into the neural tube to establish what will later be the notochord

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18
Q

At what stage is the anterior posterior axis established?

A

Gastrulation

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19
Q

The neural plate stages coincides with this embryonic phase

A

Late gastrulation

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20
Q

Which stages follows gastrulation?

A

Neurula stage

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21
Q

At what stage does the neural-fated tissue go underneath epidermal-fated tissue?

A

Neurula stage (after neural tube formation)

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22
Q

Formation of the neural tube is driven by changes in…

A

Planar cell polarity

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23
Q

What is the medial hinge point (MHP)?

A

The hinge point at which the neural plate folds during formation of the neural tube

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24
Q

Spina bifida is usually a condition associated with improper…

A

Neural tube closure

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25
Q

How is folic acid thought to be involved in spina bifida?

A

A lack of dietary folic acid may result in downstream misregulation of factors which are regulated by folic acid, and which are involved in neural tube closure

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26
Q

After the neural tube closes, cells of the neural crest…

A

Delaminate from the dorsal neural tube and migrate elsewhere

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27
Q

Neural crest cells eventually give rise to…

A

The peripheral nervous system (sensory nerves and ganglia)

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28
Q

Neural crest cells also give rise to…

A

Bone, pigment cells, cartilage, connective tissue, endocrine cells

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29
Q

Why are cells of the neural crest sometimes referred to as the “4th germ layer”?

A

Even though the cells give rise to neural tissue, they also give rise to a range of other tissue types

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30
Q

What kinds of animals have neural crest cells?

A

Vertebrates

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31
Q

The development of the trigeminal ganglion in humans forms…

A

Sensory neurons of the face

32
Q

The neural crest eventually gives rise to this part of the nervous system

A

The PNS

33
Q

The neural tube eventually gives rise to this part of the nervous system

A

The CNS

34
Q

In early human brain development of the neural tube, there are 3 primary vesicles which can be referred to as…

A

Forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain

35
Q

After the 3 vesicle stage of neural tube development, there is further subdivision of the forebrain midbrain and hindbrain into… (5)

A

Telencephalon, diencephalon, mesencephalon, metencephalon, myelencephalon

36
Q

The telencephalon later gives rise to these adult derivatives in humans

A

Olfactory lobes, hippocampus, cerebrum

37
Q

The diencephalon later gives rise to these adult derivatives in humans

A

Optic vesicle, epithalamus, thalamus, hypothalamus

38
Q

The mesencephalon later gives rise to these adult derivatives in humans

A

Midbrain

39
Q

The metencephalon later gives rise to these adult derivatives in humans

A

Cerebellum and pons

40
Q

The myelencephalon later gives rise to these adult derivatives in humans

A

Medulla

41
Q

Dorsal patterning of the neural tube mostly happens through morphogen gradients of…

A

Shh

42
Q

What is the overall purpose of gastrulation?

A

Establish the 3 germ layers, tissue becomes regionalized into dorsal-ventral axis

43
Q

Describe involution

A

A type of cell movement which drives gastrulation, in which cells migrate under the dorsal blastopore lip

44
Q

What does the blastocoel become in a fully developed vertebrate?

A

Becomes the inner cavity of the gut (does not give rise to a structure, rather, gives rise to a lack of structure)

45
Q

Involution can be initiated due to changes in cell… (2)

A

Adhesion and morphology

46
Q

Gastrulation begins on the (dorsal/ventral) side of the embryo

A

Dorsal

47
Q

In deuterostomes, gastrulation begins on the (anterior/posterior) embryo

A

Posterior

48
Q

The anterior neural tube eventually becomes this part of the CNS

A

Brain

49
Q

The posterior neural tube eventually becomes this part of the CNS

A

Spinal cord

50
Q

The yolky endoderm present in the neurula stage will eventually give rise to…

A

The structures of the gut

51
Q

What is the energy source of a young tadpole in the beginning stages of its life?

A

Yolky endoderm

52
Q

Describe the motility of a young tadpole while it is living off the yolky endoderm

A

Will not be motile, sitting around

53
Q

Define a fate map

A

Map that outlines what a cell or tissue at an early stage of development will eventually become at a later stage of development

54
Q

How could you develop a fate map?

A

Stain different parts of the embryo with dyes on agar (use landmarks like the dorsal lip) then investigate the location of the dyes at a later stage of development

Alternatively: can do genetic fate-mapping now with GFP/fluo dyes

55
Q

Describe the famous experiment which determined when neural and epidermal cell fates are specified. What were the key findings?

A

Spemann/Mangold experiment:

Transplanted presumptive neural ectoderm and attached it to host embryo to see if it could induce formation of a secondary neural plate

Early gastrula extraction + transplant: became epidermis (did not induce neural fate)

Late gastrula extraction + transplant: became neural tissue

Therefore, something must be happening during this phase to induce neural fate

56
Q

How could you design an experiment to test when neural and epidermal cell fates are determined?

A

Extract different regions of tissue at different stages and try to grow them independently

57
Q

What is the “default state” of the animal cap (dorsal) at the early gastrula stage?

A

Epidermis

58
Q

What is the default state of the ectodermal tissue, epidermis or neural tissue? Why?

A

Neural tissue: because ectoderm becomes epidermis with BMP signaling, if tissue is grown in culture without BMP, will become neural

59
Q

Describe where in the embryo the organizer is

A

In the dorsal mesoderm

60
Q

What is the general role of the organizer?

A

Secrete BMP antagonists to induce formation of neural tissue

61
Q

The structure responsible for formation of the organizer is called the…

A

Nieuwkoop centre

62
Q

During the Spemann/Mangold experiments, describe which tissues (donor and host) are exhibiting neural fates and describe why this is important

A

Donor tissue becomes part of the neural tube, and the surrounding tissue which is also neural is from the host

This is important because it demonstrates that it is not just the host tissue becoming neural, the donor tissue is also able to induce neural fates in the surrounding host tissue = must be secreting neural inducing factors

63
Q

If only neural inducing factors are eliminated from an embryo, what is the default state of the dorsal ectoderm?

A

Epidermis

64
Q

If both neural inducing factors AND BMP are eliminated from an embryo, what is the default state of the dorsal ectoderm?

A

Neural

65
Q

Describe the theoretical basis of the Smith and Harland 1992 “fishing experiment.” What important molecule did they discover?

A

Used LiCl on xenopus embryos > this results in highly dorsalized embryos = excess of “dorsal genes”

Combined mRNAs from dorsalized and wild-type embryos, the like mRNAs will combine to each other and be subtracted, leaving behind the excess genes of the dorsalized embryos

Found noggin

66
Q

Describe Occam’s razor?

A

The simplest theory or idea is often the correct one

67
Q

Correlative studies on noggin by Smith and Harland demonstrated that noggin may be a good candidate gene for a neural inducing factor because…

A

It is expressed in the expected location at the right time

68
Q

Briefly describe how the “odd-skipped” method of in situ hybridization works

A

mRNA probes are synthesized with DIG groups on them, which upon binding to the target mRNA are capable of catalyzing a reaction with a dark substrate, allowing visualization of the mRNA

69
Q

How does noggin inhibit BMP signaling?

A

Binds to BMP ligand, sequestering it

70
Q

BMP is a member of this family of signaling molecules

A

TGF-beta

71
Q

Heterodimers of receptors in the TGF-beta signaling family commonly activate this downstream protein

A

Smad 2,3, which activates Smad 4 (Smad dimerization)

72
Q

When Smad 2,3 and Smad 4 dimerize, what happens?

A

The complex is capable of entering the nucleus and can activate or repress transcription

73
Q

BMP activates these downstream signaling molecules

A

Smad 1,5 and Smad4

74
Q

What is a key source of BMP inhibitors in vertebrate development?

A

The organizer

75
Q

Signaling from this molecule in this tissue layer helps in formation of the organizer

A

Beta-catenin from the dorsal endoderm

76
Q

Beta-catenin and this other molecule are secreted from this centre, resulting in formation of the organizer

A

Wnt from the Nieuwkoop centre

77
Q

Involution is driven by this population of cells

A

Bottle cells