Related topics: embryos · genes · stem cells · cells · protein

Newly discovered gene critical to embryo's first days

A previously unknown gene plays a critical part in the development of the human embryo during the first days of fertilisation, researchers from Karolinska Institutet show. The paper, which is published in the scientific journal ...

How the whale got its teeth

Whales are mammals, but they don't look like the mammals living around us, as they have a triangular fluke for tail, no hind legs and no body hair. And inside their mouths, their teeth are unfamiliar too – being much simpler ...

Cell biologists discover on-off switch for key stem cell gene

Consider the relationship between an air traffic controller and a pilot. The pilot gets the passengers to their destination, but the air traffic controller decides when the plane can take off and when it must wait. The same ...

Shedding new light on embryonic development

(PhysOrg.com) -- The astonishing similarity in the appearance of embryos from different animal species was observed as far back as the 19th century by scientists such as Karl von Baer, Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel. Such ...

Genomic analysis solves the turtle mystery

The turtle has always been considered somewhat odd in evolutionary terms. In addition to lacking the hole in the skull—the temporal fenestra—that is characteristic of the egg-laying amniotes, the structure of its shell ...

Ovastacin cuts off sperm binding

A study in The Journal of Cell Biology describes how a secreted enzyme helps egg cells avoid being fertilized by more than one sperm.

From wound healing to regeneration

The phenomenon of regeneration was discovered over 200 years ago in the freshwater polyp Hydra. Until now, however, it was largely unclear how the orderly regeneration of lost tissues or organs is activated after injury. ...

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