Cytoplasmic Determinants

These maternal substances, cytoplasmic determinants, regulate the expression of genes that affect the developmental fate of the cell. After fertilization, the cell nuclei resulting from mitotic division of the zygote are exposed to different cytoplasmic environments.
This shows unequal sharing of cellular material in case you could not tell.

Peer Pressure
The other important source of developmental information is the environment around the cell, especially signals impinging on an embryonic cell from other nearby embryonic cells.
The synthesis of these signals is controlled by the embryos own genes.

Pattern Formation
Cytoplasmic determinants, inductive signals, and their effects contribute to pattern formation, the development of a spatial organization in which the tissues and organs of an organism are all in their characteristic places. The major axes of an animal are established very early as the molecular cues that control pattern formation, positional information, tell a cell its location relative to the body axes and to neighboring cells. They also determine how the cells and its progeny will respond to future molecule signals.

The anterior-posterior polarity of the embryo, larva, and adult has its origin in the anterior-posterior polarity of the egg maternal effect genes expressed in the mothers ovaries produce messenger RNAs that are placed in different regions of the egg. Bicoid and Hunchback, regulate the production of anterior structures, Nanos and Caudal, regulates the formation of the posterior parts of the embryo Gap genes are the zygotic genes that are regulated by these maternal genes and are the first ones to get transcribed in the embryo. Different Pair-rule genes get transcribed depending on the concentration of the Gap protein in that part of the embryo

DORSO-VENTRAL PATTERN FORMATION

Gurken mRNA and protein is localized to the future dorsal side of embryo in the oocyte localized activation of Torpedo receptor on follicle cells to the future dorsal side of embryo in the oocyte PIPE protein on the ventral side of the embryo leads to the activation of spatzle in the extracellular space which now binds to Toll receptor which determines the nuclear localization of dorsal protein

ANTERIO-POSTERIOR POLARITY

Segmentation Genes
The bicoid protein and other morphogens are transcription factors that regulate the activity of some of the embryos own genes. Gradients of these morphogens bring about regional differences in the expression of segmentation genes, the genes that direct the actual formation of segments after the embryos major axes are defined.

Segmentation
Sequential activation of three sets of segmentation genes provides the positional information for increasingly fine details of the body plan.
These are gap genes, pairrule genes, and segment polarity genes.

3 types of segmentation genes 1. GAP GENES: mutation in these genes produce gaps in the segmentation pattern of the larva. Eg: kruppel lacks 8 segments T1-A5. 6 GAP GENES ARE PRESENT 2. PAIRRULE GENES: 8 genes. Mutations result in loss of alternate segments. Eg: even-skipped (eve) odd numbered segments lost, fushi tarazu (ftz) lacks even numbered 3. SEGMENT-POLARITY GENES: Mutations produce larvae with a normal number of segments but with a part of each segment deleted and replaced by a mirrorimage duplicate

The body of Drosophila melanogaster is built from 14 segments: 3 segments make up the head with its antennae and mouth parts. 3 segments make up the thorax. Each thoracic segment has a pair of legs.,the middle thoracic segment carries a single pair of wings; the hind segment a pair of halters. 8 abdominal segments.

PAIR-RULE GENE Pair-rule genes divide syncytial balstoderm into 7 segments and after this cell membrane is formed around each nuclei transforming into cellular blastoderm.

SEGMENT-POLARITY GENE (gooseberry)

Homeotic Genes
In a normal fly, structures such as antennae, legs, and wings develop on the appropriate segments. The anatomical identity of the segments is controlled by master regulatory genes, the homeotic genes. Discovered by Edward Lewis, these genes specify the types of appendages and other structures that each segment will form.

The order of the genes on the chromosome reflects the order that they are expressed along the anterior-posterior axis of the developing embryo.

Structures characteristic of a particular part of the animal arise in the wrong place. Like other developmental genes, the homeotic genes code for transcription factors.
The Antennapedia group includes labial, antennapedia, sex combs reduced, deformed, and proboscipedia. Labial and Deformed proteins are expressed in head segments where they activate the genes that define head features. Sex-combs-reduced and Antennapedia specify the properties of thoracic segments. The bithorax group control the specializations of the third thoracic segment and the abdominal segments.

Homeotic transformation

Mutations to homeotic genes produce flies with such strange traits as legs growing from the head in place of antennae.

Mutation in antennapedia hox gene results in the formation of a leg from the head of a fruit fly in stead of the expected antenna.

Apoptosis
Lineage analysis of C. elegans highlights another outcome of cell signaling, programmed cell death or apoptosis.
The timely suicide of cells occurs exactly 131 times in the course of C. eleganss normal development. At precisely the same points in development, signals trigger the activation of a cascade of suicide proteins in the cells destined to die.

Apoptosis
Apoptosis is regulated not at the level of transcription or translation, but through changes in the activity of proteins that are continually present in the cell.

 Apoptosis pathways in humans and other mammals are more complicated. Research on mammals have revealed a prominent role for mitochondria in apoptosis.
Signals from apoptosis pathways or others somehow cause the outer mitochondrial membrane to leak, releasing proteins that promote apoptosis. Still controversial is whether mitochondria play a central role in apoptosis or only a subsidiary role.

A cell must make a life-or-death decision by somehow integrating both the death and life (growth factor) signals that it receives. Apoptosis is essential to the development of animal morphogenesis (prevents webbing between fingers and toes).