2011 Lab 2 - Week 1
|2011 Lab 2: Introduction | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Online Assessment | Group Project|
There are several important changes that occur in this new diploid cell beginning the very first mitotic cell divisions and expressing a new genome.
The oocyte arrested in meiosis is initially quiescent in terms of gene expression, and many other animal models of development have shown maternal RNAs and proteins to be important for early functions.
The new zygote gene expression is about cycles of mitosis and maintaining the toptipotency of the stem cell offspring cells.
The morula gene expression supports the formation of two populations of cells the trophoblast (trophectoderm) and embryoblast (inner cell mass), each having different roles in development, while maintaining the toptipotency of these populations.
Current research is now also pointing to non-genetic mechanisms or epigenetics as an additional mechanism in play in these processes.
The following figure is from a recent study using video and genetic analysis of in vitro human development during week 1 following fertilization.
- EGA - embryonic genome activation
- ESSP - embryonic stage–specific pattern, four unique embryonic stage–specific patterns (1-4)
A recent paper has measured telomere length in human oocyte (GV, germinal vesicle), morula and blastocyst and found changes in this length in preimplantation embryos. Telomeres are the regions found at the ends of each chromosome and involved in cellular ageing and the capacity for division. The regions consist of repeated sequences protecting the ends of chromosomes and harbour DNA repair proteins. In the absence of the enzyme telomerase, these regions shorten during each cell division and becoming critically short, cell senescence occurs.
|Early human telomeres||Early human telomere length|
--Mark Hill 13:21, 9 May 2011 (EST) These concepts will be covered later in detail with BGDB - Sexual Differentiation.
Mammalian sex determination is regulated by chromosomes.
- Females have two X chromosomes. (XX)
- Males have a single X and a small Y. (XY)
- The X and Y chromosome are morphologically and functionally different from each other.
- Evolutionary studies have shown that the Y was once the homologous pair for X.
- It is only in the last 5 years that we have some idea about how these two types of chromosomes may be regulated and genes of importance located upon them.
In females - the main scientific problem was understanding gene dosage, only one copy of X chromosome is needed to be genetically active the other copy is inactivated (More? X Inactivation.
About the X Chromosome
- Glossary: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Numbers | Symbols | Term Link
Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2019, January 17) Embryology 2011 Lab 2 - Week 1. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/2011_Lab_2_-_Week_1
- © Dr Mark Hill 2019, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G