Chapter 4, 7, 9, 12 Flashcards
(285 cards)
what is morphogenesis?
the formation of an organized form
what are epithelial cells?
cells that are connected tightly
-often in sheets or tubes
what are mesenchymal cells?
loosely associated or migrating cells
what ways do cells construct themselves into an organized embryo?
- cell signalling
- cells know what types of cells to stay with (correct populations)
- signals tell cells to associate with each other
- organ formation and location
- organ growth and growth coordination
- achieving polarity
what is paracrine signalling?
signals that reach long ranges
- occurs early in development unlike endocrine
- signalling molecule is released from the cell and a cell with the correct receptor will receive it
what is juxtacrine signalling?
signals that are passed between touching cells (local)
- can be homophobic binding (same molecule connecting the cells)
- or could be heterophilic binding (a molecule from each cell)
- or can interact through ECM
what is autocrine signalling?
a cell sending a signal to itself
what is selective affinity?
germ layers or different cells types have a positive affinity for one layer and a negative one for another
-can change during dev
what is the differential adhesion hypothesis?
- a model that explains patterns of cell sorting based on thermodynamic principles
- cells aggregate together in the most thermodynamically stable pattern
how was selective affinity first described?
- used an amphibian neurula and separated epithelial cells and neural plate cells and dissociated them
- when they naturally reformed they found that epithelial cells went to the outside and neural cells went to the inside
- preformed by Towns and Holfreder in 1955
what does differential adhesion have to do with surface tension?
- cells that have same surface tension populate together
- cells with more surface tension will sort inside
- cells with lower surface tension on the outside
- the cells with higher surface tension had more cadherins which connects surface tension to differential adhesion
what are cadherins?
- calcium dependant adhesion molecules
- they are transmembrane (external domain adheres cells together)
- anchored by catenins, and bind to the actin of the cytoskeleton of the cell (provides mechanical support for sheets and tubes)
- also a signalling molecule that cells gene expression
what are the types of cadherins in mammals?
E: early mammalian dev, restricted to epithelial tissues later on
P: placenta, to stick to uterus
N: developing CNS
R: retina formation
pro: lack attachment to actin cytoskeleton, help keep migrating cells together
what is the overall structure of cadherins?
- ECM domain with 5 regions to interact with neighbouring cells
- calcium-binding sites
- adhesive recognition site for cadherin of same type
- transmembrane domain
- intracellular domain that interacts with a catenin complex of 3 that interacts with actin
how do cadherins interact with each other?
-form homodimers then interact
how can cadherins be inhibited?
-removing calcium from the environment (Cells won’t be able to interact)
how do you get different amounts of gene expression for cadherins?
-depends on what amount of TFs are present at the enhancers, the more TFs the more cadherin production
how is E cadherin used in epiboly in zebrafish?
- the ectoderm cells surrounding the embryo need to be held together to migrate around the embryo
- the endoderm moves inwards and pulls the ectoderm around the embryo
- if E-cadherin isn’t present the embryo is half-baked (endoderm isnt wrapped around)
what is radial intercalation?
- movement of deep epiblast cells to more superficial layer (powers epiboly)
- involves E-cadherins
why does the type of cadherin matter for interactions?
- if they aren’t the right type they won’t bind
- ex. R and B don’t bind
- sheets of cells of the same type form this way
why is it important that the egg stays inside the zona pellucida?
-cells on the outside of the egg express P-cadherin so that the egg can be implanted into the placenta but if the egg hatches from the zona pellucida in the Fallopian tube it can bind there and the pregnancy must be terminated otherwise the mother will be killed
what is the extracellular matrix?
- an insoluble network consisting of macromolecules secreted by cells into their immediate environment- between cells
- most cells are secreted for ECM are fibroblast cells
what four proteins are important for the ECM?
- proteoglycan: delivers paracrine factors in high conc.
- fibronectin: glycoprotein dimer, general adhesion molecule, proper alignment of cells with ECM and cell migration (pathways guide cells over dorsal blastopore lip)
- laminin: part of basal lamina
- collagen: type IV part of basal lamina
what do all of the proteins of the ECM provide?
- site of attachment
- path for migration
- directions for movement
- signal for a development event