Growing an Embryo from a Single Cell: A Hurdle in Animal Life

Overview

Journal Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

Specialties Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2015 Aug 9

PMID 26254311

Citations 24

Authors

Patrick H OFarrell

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A requirement that an animal be able to feed to grow constrains how a cell can grow into an animal, and it forces an alternation between growth (increase in mass) and proliferation (increase in cell number). A growth-only phase that transforms a stem cell of ordinary proportions into a huge cell, the oocyte, requires dramatic adaptations to help a nucleus direct a 10(5)-fold expansion of cytoplasmic volume. Proliferation without growth transforms the huge egg into an embryo while still accommodating an impotent nucleus overwhelmed by the voluminous cytoplasm. This growth program characterizes animals that deposit their eggs externally, but it is changed in mammals and in endoparasites. In these organisms, development in a nutritive environment releases the growth constraint, but growth of cells before gastrulation requires a new program to sustain pluripotency during this growth.

Citing Articles

Somatic polyploidy supports biosynthesis and tissue function by increasing transcriptional output.

Lessenger A, Skotheim J, Swaffer M, Feldman J J Cell Biol. 2024; 224(3).

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The maternal-to-zygotic transition: reprogramming of the cytoplasm and nucleus.

Kojima M, Hoppe C, Giraldez A Nat Rev Genet. 2024; .

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Two-fluid dynamics and micron-thin boundary layers shape cytoplasmic flows in early embryos.

Hernandez-Lopez C, Puliafito A, Xu Y, Lu Z, Di Talia S, Vergassola M Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023; 120(44):e2302879120.

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Principles of genome activation in the early embryo.

Zhou C, Heald R Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2023; 81:102062.

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Polyploidy in Xenopus lowers metabolic rate by decreasing total cell surface area.

Cadart C, Bartz J, Oaks G, Liu M, Heald R Curr Biol. 2023; 33(9):1744-1752.e7.

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