(AGENPARL) – WORCESTER (MASSACHUSETTS), ven 05 febbraio 2021
WOODS HOLE, Mass. Egg cells start out as round blobs. After fertilization, they begin transforming into people, dogs, fish, or other animals by orienting head to tail, back to belly, and left to right. Exactly what sets these body orientation directions has been guessed at but not seen. Now researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have imaged the very beginning of this cellular rearrangement, and their findings help answer a fundamental question.
“The most interesting and mysterious part of developmental biology is the origin of the body axis in animals,” said researcher Tomomi Tani. An MBL scientist in the Eugene Bell Center at the time of the research, Tani is now with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
Dr Tomomi Tani, an MBL scientist in the Eugene Bell Center at the time of the research, said: “The most interesting and mysterious part of developmental biology is the origin of the body axis in animals.” The most interesting and mysterious part of developmental biology is the origin of the body axis in animals
Dr Tomomi Tani
His work with MBL colleague Dr Hirokazu Ishii confirm both parents contribute to their offspring’s body orientation.
For the sea squirt animals used in the research, input from the mother sets the back-belly axis while the father performs the same role for the head-tail axis.
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Egg cells start out as round blobs. After fertilization, they begin transforming into people, dogs, fish, or other animals by orienting head to tail, back to belly, and left to right. Exactly what sets these body orientation directions has been guessed at but not seen. Now researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have imaged the very beginning of this cellular rearrangement, and their findings help answer a fundamental question. The most interesting and mysterious part of developmental biology is the origin of the body axis in animals, said researcher Tomomi Tani. An MBL scientist in the Eugene Bell Center at the time of the research, Tani is now with Japan s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.