Basic principles and techniques

Question 1

What is tissue homeostasis?

Answer 1

Maintenance of the structure and function of organs in the body through the control of cell division and cell death via negative feedback, and through repair mechanisms operated by stem cells

Question 2

Excess of stem cell renewal leads to what?

Answer 2

Hyperplasia and or tumerigenesis

Question 3

Depeletion of stem cells may lead to what?

Answer 3

Tissue degeneration/ tissue aging

Question 4

What is pattern formation?

Answer 4

The process by which cells are organised in space and time to produce a well-ordered structure within the embryo

Question 5

What is morphogenesis?

Answer 5

Cell and tissue movement and changes in cell behaviour that give the developing organ its shape

Question 6

What factors are important for cell movement and reorganisation?

Answer 6

Cell adhesion
Cell migration
Cell death
Cell shape

Question 7

What is cell differentiation?

Answer 7

The process where cells become different to each other and acquire specialised properties
Governed by changes in gene expression

Question 8

What is growth and what are its properties?

Answer 8

Growth in mass or size
Continuous process eg embryonic to fetal to post natal etc
Growth rate varies depending on age and the organ
Cell proliferation, cell enlargement and accretion

Question 9

What is the funnel model and who made it?

Answer 9

hypothesis that the most conserved stage of development (the phylotypic period) occurs at the beginning of embryogenesis, with increasing divergence as development progresses
Haeckel

Question 10

What is the hourglass model and who made it?

Answer 10

the idea that early embryos of different species display divergent forms but their morphologies converge in the middle of development, followed by a period of increasing divergence.
Von Baer

Question 11

Which methods could you use to establish where a gene is expressed?

Answer 11

In situ hybridisation
Reporter lines
High throughput analyses eg microarray and RNAseq

Question 12

What could you use to investigate if a protein is expressed at the same time as a gene

Answer 12

Western blot

Immunohistochemistry

Question 13

Which methods could you use to investigate the distribution of proteins?

Answer 13

Immuno detection eg immuno histochemistry and immuno fluorescence

Question 14

What could you do to investigate if a gene is essential for development?

Answer 14

gain of function and loss of function

Question 15

What is a loss of function mutation?

Answer 15

mutation in a gene that disrupts the expression or the function of the protein product encoded by the mutated gene

Question 16

What is a gain of function mutation?

Answer 16

mutation in a gene that confers a gain in the activity of the protein product encoded by the mutated gene

Question 17

What is forward genetics?

Answer 17

seeks to identify a gene whose mutation caused a

particular phenotype

Question 18

What is reverse genetics?

Answer 18

seeks to characterize the phenotype of particular

mutated gene.

Question 19

Which model organisms can forward genetics be done in?

Answer 19

C elegans, drosophila, zebrafish and mouse

Question 20

Which model organisms can reverse genetics be done in?

Answer 20

Mice

Question 21

What methods could you use to demonstrate an inductive function?

Answer 21

Tissue ablation, graft or transplantation

Bead/cell implantation