Vocabulary for Ch. 21: The Genetic Basis of Development
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| 1059458016 | model organsim | An organism chosen to study broad biological principles | |
| 1059458017 | cell differentiation | The structural and functional divergence of cells as they become specialized during a multicellular organism's development; dependent on the control of gene expression | |
| 1059458018 | morphogenesis | The development of body shape and organization | |
| 1059458019 | apical meristems | Embryonic plant tissue in the tips of roots and in the buds of shoots that supplies cells for the plant to grow in length | |
| 1059458020 | totipotent | Describing a cell that can give rise to all parts of an organism | |
| 1059458021 | cloning | Using one or more somatic cells from a multicellular organism to make another genetically identical individual | |
| 1059458022 | clone | A single individual organism that si genetically identical to another individual | |
| 1059458023 | stem cell | Any relatively unspecialized cell that can divide during a single division into one identical daughter cell and one more specialized daughter cell, which can undergo further differentiation | |
| 1059458024 | pluripotent | Describing a stem cell, from an embryo or adult organism, that can give rise to multiple but not all differentiated cell types | |
| 1059458025 | determination | The progressive restriction of developmental potential, causing the possible fate of each cell to become more limited as the embryo develops | |
| 1059458026 | cytoplasmic determinants | The maternal substances in the egg that influence the course of early development by regulating the expression of genes that affect the developmental fate of cells | |
| 1059458027 | pattern formation | The ordering of cells into specific three-dimensional structures, an essential part of shaping an organism and its individual parts during development | |
| 1059458028 | positional information | Signals to which genes regulating development respond, indicating a cell's location relative to other cell's in an embryonic structure | |
| 1059458029 | embryonic lethal | A mutation with a phenotype leading to death at the embryo or larval stage | |
| 1059458030 | maternal effect gene | A gene that, when mutant in the mother, results in a mutant phenotype in the offspring, regardless of the genotype | |
| 1059458031 | egg-polarity genes | Another name for a maternal effect gene, a gene that helps control the orientation (polarity) of the egg | |
| 1059458032 | morphogen | A substance, such as Bicoid protein, tat provides positional information in the form of a concentration gradient along an embryonic axis | |
| 1059458033 | segmentation gene | A gene of the embryo that directs the actual formation of segments ofter the embryo's axes are defined | |
| 1059458034 | homeotic genes | Any of the genes that control the overall body plan of animals and plants by controlling the developmental fate of groups of cells | |
| 1059458035 | cell lineage | The ancestry of a cell | |
| 1059458036 | apoptosis | The changes that occur within a cell as it undergoes programmed cell death, which is brought about by signals that trigger the activation of a cascade of suicide proteins in the cell destined to die | |
| 1059458037 | chimera | An organism with a mixture of genetically different cells | |
| 1059458038 | organ identity gene | Plant homeotic gene that use positional information to determine which emerging leaves develop into which types of floral organs | |
| 1059458039 | homeobox | A 180-nucleotide sequence within homeotic genes and some other developmental genes that is widely conserved in animals. Related sequences occur in plants and prokaryotes |
