Embryonic development or embryogenesis is the process by which the embryo is formed and develops. It starts with the fertilization of the ovum, egg, which, after fertilization, is then called a zygote. The zygote undergoes rapid mitotic divisions, the formation of two exact genetic replicates of the original cell, with no significant growth (a process known as cleavage) and cellular differentiation, leading to development of an embryo.
Some areas of the adult brain contain quiescent, or dormant, neural stem cells that can potentially be reactivated to form new neurons. However, the transition from quiescence to proliferation is still poorly understood. A team led by scientists from the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Lausanne (UNIL) has discovered the importance of cell metabolism in this process and identified how to wake up these neural stem cells and reactivate them. Biologists succeeded in increasing the number of new neurons in the brain of adult and even elderly mice. These results, promising for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, are to be discovered in the journal Science Advances.
Computer software developed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis can predict what happens to complex gene networks when individual genes are missing or dialed up more than usual.
For cis-regulatory elements in the genome to function, which is crucial for gene regulation, a high-order chromatin structure is required. Three-dimensional (3D) genome organization in eukaryotes exhibits a hierarchical structure.
One of the most basic and amazing processes that occur in both plants and animals is embryogenesis. It is incredible that, within a matter of weeks after fertilization, a single mother egg cell can transform into a living thing with a complex body structure.
The effectiveness of molecular genetic techniques like CRISPR/Cas9 and related systems has been significantly improved, and their range of applications has been expanded, by researchers from the Department of Developmental Biology/Physiology at the Centre for Organismal Studies of Heidelberg University.
For the first time, researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland examined the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the epigenome and gene function of the placenta. The epigenome is a molecular coating on a DNA strand that controls how genes are expressed.
Cleft lip and palate, which are mainly caused by genetic reasons, are two of the most common congenital malformations. It is still unknown which genes are exactly affected.
Curtin University researchers have revealed how the pelvic fins of fish such as sharks and chimeras have evolved from their sudden appearance in the fossil record over 410 million years ago.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, they have devised a computer model called quantitative fate mapping that looks back in time to track the origin of cells in a fully grown organism.
Curtin University researchers have revealed how the pelvic fins of fish such as sharks and chimaeras have evolved from their sudden appearance in the fossil record over 410 million years ago.
At Uppsala University, a DNA sequence found in jawed vertebrates has been discovered and characterized by scientists. This includes sharks and humans, but it is absent in jawless vertebrates, like lampreys.
An international study led by the medical school at the University of Bonn has discovered a gene that is crucial to the growth of the human embryo. Abnormalities of different organ systems may occur if it is changed.
According to a recent study, which will be published on November 1st, 2022, by Yun-Fei Li of Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues, a decrease in protein synthesis in growing gut cells contributes to a rare genetic condition, and an affordable nutritional supplement could help reverse that decrease.
Researchers have opened a new avenue for investigations of neurological development, disease, and therapies that cannot be undertaken in living people by employing stem cells to grow small brain-like structures in the lab.
Researchers at IRB Barcelona, under the direction of Dr Marco Milan, have identified a very robust system that insects use for wing formation and regeneration.
Years of work by Trinity College Dublin developmental biologists in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh’s MRC Human Genetics Unit has resulted in an unparalleled resource that will help researchers assess how key genes control the differentiation of tissues and organs in developing embryos.
The knowledge of what can be inherited from parents and how their life experiences impact children could be completely rewritten if a fundamental finding concerning a factor driving healthy development in embryos were made.
According to the latest research, medical and life science scientists will benefit from the most detailed atlas of zebrafish genetic data available.
As we age, so do our eyes; most commonly, this involves changes to our vision and new glasses, but there are more severe forms of age-related eye problems.
Coral reef fish breed more successfully if motorboat noise is reduced, new research shows.