Frontiers in Developmental Biology

Robert A. Meyers

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783527685912
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

This topical volume in the respected Encyclopedia series is the first in many years to bring together all important aspects of developmental biology in one source, from morphogenesis and organogenesis, via epigenetic regulation of gene expression to evolutionary developmental biology. The editor-in-chief has assembled an outstanding team of contributors to review these topics, creating an authoritative work for many years to come.
The result is a unique, top-level reference in developmental biology for researchers, students and professionals alike.

Part I Introduction

1
Developmental Cell Biology

Frank J. Dye

Western Connecticut State University, Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences, 181 White Street, Danbury, CT 06810, USA

1. 1 Introduction
2. 2 Historical Perspective
   1. 2.1 Origins of Cell Biology
   2. 2.2 Origins of Developmental Biology
   3. 2.3 Relationship between Cell and Developmental Biology
   4. 2.4 Nuclear Equivalence
3. 3 Cell Activities Underlying Development
   1. 3.1 Intracellular Signal Transduction
      1. 3.1.1 Receptors
      2. 3.1.2 Intracellular Signal Transduction
      3. 3.1.3 Transcription Factors
   2. 3.2 Cell Signaling
      1. 3.2.1 Juxtacrine Signaling
      2. 3.2.2 Autocrine Signaling
      3. 3.2.3 Paracrine Signaling
      4. 3.2.4 Endocrine Signaling
      5. 3.2.5 Growth Factors
   3. 3.3 Cell–Cell Interaction
      1. 3.3.1 Cell Junctions
      2. 3.3.2 Cell Signals
   4. 3.4 Cell–Matrix Interaction
      1. 3.4.1 Integrin Signaling
      2. 3.4.2 Cell Movement
4. 4 Cell Differentiation
5. 5 The Cell Cycle and Development
6. 6 Organogenesis
7. 7 Stem Cells
8. 8 Cloning
9. 9 Chimeras
10. 10 MicroRNAs (miRNAs)
11. 11 In‐Vitro Fertilization/Nuclear Equivalence
12. References

Keywords

Cell cycle A series of phases, designated G1, S, G2 and M, that a cell sequentially passes through between the time it is formed by cell division and the time it itself divides.

Chimera An organism consisting of parts derived from more than one pair of parents. The chimera of Greek mythology consisted of a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. Chimeras may be made in the laboratory by, in the case of mammals, removing the zona pellucida of each embryo and pushing the sticky embryos together, which merge together to form a single chimeric embryo.

Embryonic stem cells ( ESCs ) Stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst stage embryo.

Germ layers The three traditional germ layers of the nineteenth century – ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm – were expanded during the twentieth century to include a fourth germ layer, the neural crest. Recent inductions of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have shown that differentiated cells developmentally derived from one germ layer (e.g., fibroblasts derived from mesoderm) may be induced to form differentiated cells from another germ layer (e.g., nerve cells normally derived from ectoderm).

Growth factors Extracellular polypeptide signal molecules that can stimulate a cell to grow or proliferate.

Induced pluripotent stem ( iPS ) cells Adult differentiated cells that have been converted to cells with the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, generally accomplished by the activation of specific transcription factors.

In‐ vitro fertilization ( IVF ) Human/mammalian fertilization occurring under artificial conditions outside of the body.

Intracellular signal transduction Cascades of chemical reactions used by cells to convey information from the cell surface to the interior of the cell (e.g., the nucleus) where the information is acted upon. The cell makes use of multiple and interacting intracellular signal transduction pathways.

microRNAs ( miRNAs ) Post‐transcriptional regulators that bind to complementary sequences of target messenger RNA (mRNA) transcripts, usually resulting in gene silencing.

Organogenesis Organ formation.

Pluripotent cell A cell that is capable of giving rise to many of the cell types of an organism.

Receptors Proteins that bind other molecules or ions and, as a result of the binding, influence cellular activity.

Stem cell A cell that undergoes mitotic cell division to give rise to the same type of cell. At some point, stem cells leave the pool of mitotically dividing cells to begin a process of cell differentiation.

STAP cells Stimulus‐triggered acquisition of pluripotency cells. During early 2014, STAP cells were reportedly created by simply immersing mouse cells briefly into a mild acid bath. About 7–9% of cells from newborn mice survived the acid treatment and took just a week to form STAP cells. Haruko Obokata and her colleagues, of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, and Harvard Medical School, reportedly transformed blood, skin, brain, muscle, fat, bone marrow, lung, and liver cells from newborn mice into STAP cells. When injected into mouse embryos, STAP cells reportedly not only incorporated into any body tissue but also formed parts of the placenta. According to news reports, later in 2014, Obokata, who led the researchers reporting that dipping adult cells in acid could change them into stem cells, agreed to retract one of the papers describing the result.

Transcription factors Proteins that attach to DNA at a gene regulatory site, and by so doing influence the rate of transcription of a specific gene.

It is said that Thomas Hunt Morgan, the recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1933, for his discoveries concerning the role played by the chromosome in heredity, started out as an embryologist but switched to genetics. At the time, the two fields of embryology and genetics were separate endeavors. Hans Spemann was awarded the first Nobel Prize in embryology, a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in 1935, for his discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development. Sixty years later, in 1995, a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nusslein‐Volhard, and Eric F. Wieschaus for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development. Ironically, Edmund Beecher Wilson's book, The Cell in Development and Heredity, 3rd edition, published in 1925, is considered to be a classic in cytology (cell biology), genetics and embryology. The point being made is that the twentieth century witnessed the dissolution of the boundaries between embryology (developmental biology) and genetics. The following chapter makes it clear that this integration continues at an unabated pace.

1 Introduction

Developmental cell biology is concerned with the consequences of what cells do in the context of developing organisms. Developmental biologists are also concerned with events before fertilization (e.g., gametogenesis) and after birth – or its equivalent in nonmammalian species (e.g., metamorphosis and regeneration). The range of species in the purview of the developmental biologist covers, essentially, the entire living world – animals, plants, protists, fungi, and even prokaryotes. In the creation of a human being, cell proliferation is required to create the trillions of cells of which the body is composed. Cell differentiation provides the more than 200 different types of cell identified to date in the human body, while morphogenesis shapes the body form characteristic of the human species.

The present understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie these phenomena has been progressing at an ever‐increasing pace, a testimonial to the army of cell and developmental biologists at work across the planet. To understand the regulation of the cell cycle, apoptosis, cell differentiation, pattern formation and cell movement (to mention but a few such phenomena), to understand the integration of the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Part I Introduction
• Part II Evolutionary Developmental Biology
• Part III Cell Migration and Morphogenesis
• Part IV Gametogenesis, Fertilization and Early Embryogenesis
• Index
• End User License Agreement