Animal Development

Cell Biology
October 23, 2013
Gastrulation: Universal Features of
Animal Development
Important classes of proteins for
animal development
Two classes of proteins are especially
important for multicellular organization

- transmembrane molecules used for cell
adhesion and cell signaling (cellcell
interactions)
- gene regulatory proteins (DNA binding
proteins: differential gene expression)

Regulatory DNA defines the program of development
Embryo manipulation reveals the
interactions between its Cells
Descriptive Embryology describe the anatomical
changesthe patterns of cell division, growth,
and movementthat convert the egg into the
mature organism
Experimental embryology aims to understand
development in terms of the ways in which cells
and tissues interact to generate the multicellular
structure.
Developmental genetics analyzes development in
terms of the actions of genes.
Experimental embryology
In experimental embryology, cells and tissues from developing
animals are removed, rearranged, transplanted, or grown in
isolation, in order to discover how they influence one another.
Examples:

- An early embryo cut in half, for example, may yield two complete
and perfectly formed animals.

- A small piece of tissue transplanted to a new site may reorganize
the whole structure of the developing body.

Such experiments can help understanding of the underlying cell
cell interactions and rules of cell behavior.

Most widely used species have been birdsespecially the chick
and amphibiansparticularly the African frog Xenopus laevis.

(A), an early amphibian embryo is split almost into two parts with a hair
loop. (B), an amphibian embryo at a somewhat later stage receives a graft of a
small cluster of cells from another embryo at that stage. The two quite different
operations both cause a single embryo to develop into a pair of conjoined (Siamese)
twins.
Mutational studies on animals identify
genes that control development
Developmental genetics
Parent animals are treated with a chemical mutagen or
ionizing radiation to induce mutations in their germ
cells, and large numbers of their progeny are
examined.
Those rare mutant individuals that show some
interesting developmental abnormalityaltered
development of the eye, for exampleare picked out
for further study.
It is possible to discover genes that are required
specifically for the normal development of any chosen
feature.
Genetic approach
The genetic approach is easiest in small
animals with short generation times that can
be grown in the laboratory

- fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster
- nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans
- zebrafish, Danio rerio
- mouse, Mus musculus
A cell makes developmental decisions
long before it shows a visible change
Cells have memory that reflect their
location in the body
In many systems, long before cells become
committed to differentiating as a specific cell
type, they become regionally determined: that is,
they switch on and maintain expression of genes
that can best be regarded as markers of position
or region in the body.

This position-specific character of a cell is called
its positional value, and it shows its effects in the
way the cell behaves in subsequent steps of
pattern formation