Developmental Biology

What you'll learn

• Explain differential gene expression, distinguish specification, determination and differentiation, and analyse autonomous, conditional and syncytial specification, induction, competence and morphogen gradients.
• Compare spermatogenesis and oogenesis, and explain sperm guidance, capacitation, the acrosome reaction, gamete fusion, the blocks to polyspermy, egg activation by calcium and genomic imprinting.
• Relate patterns of cleavage to yolk and spindle orientation, explain the mid-blastula transition and the first fate decision in mammals, and describe the cell movements and germ layers of gastrulation.
• Trace the Drosophila segmentation hierarchy from maternal gradients through gap, pair-rule and segment polarity genes to Hox genes, and explain dorsal–ventral patterning by Dorsal and Dpp.
• Explain cortical rotation, the Nieuwkoop centre, mesoderm induction and the organizer, the BMP antagonist model of neural induction, head induction and the establishment of left–right asymmetry.
• Describe how developmental signalling pathways are deployed, including morphogen transport, concentration and duration reading, lateral inhibition by Notch, opposing gradients and the effects of pathway mutations.
• Explain Hox gene clusters, colinearity, Hox codes and posterior prevalence, and evaluate how regulatory evolution, deep homology and heterochrony contribute to the evolution of form.
• Describe neurulation and neural tube defects, the patterning of the neural tube, neurogenesis, neural crest specification, migration and derivatives, and the guidance and refinement of axons.
• Explain somite formation by the clock and wavefront mechanism, limb patterning by the AER, ZPA and dorsal ectoderm, and the formation of the heart, kidney and eye by tissue interactions.
• Compare germ cell specification by germ plasm and induction, and explain chromosomal, dosage, X-counting and temperature-dependent sex determination and the maintenance of gonadal identity.
• Define stem cell potency and niches, explain embryonic and induced pluripotency and gene network models of cell fate, and compare regeneration across animals and the uses and limits of organoids.
• Apply the principles of teratology and developmental plasticity to environmental exposures, and compare the governance of human embryo research and genome editing in Canada and the United States.