Exam 23: Developmental Genetics

Development of the anchor cell in the vulva in the nematode C.elegans is the result of _______.

What significant conclusion has the classic work on the eyeless and Pax6 genes provided in terms of developmental mechanisms?

A mutation seen in Drosophila is found to cause antennae to grow on the abdomen of the flies.What type of mutation is this likely to represent?

Three investigators-Nüsslein- Volhard,Wieschaus,and Lewis-won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1995 for work they did in 1970 with Drosophila.Briefly describe their findings.

Provide an explanation of the differences between differentiation and determination.Provide examples of each process and indicate how each is involved in development.

A homeobox gene is one that produces a_______ .

It is often said that development is a two- step process.What two steps are likely to be referred to here?

Describe the difference between a totipotent cell and a pluripotent cell.

Arabidopsis thaliana has homologous gene clusters to the Hox genes found in Drosophila.What are these master regulatory clusters called?

In Drosophila,which type of genes are controlled by maternal gene products laid down in gradients in the egg?

Design an experiment that would allow you to determine if a particular nucleus in a Drosophila embryo is capable of directing development of an entire new fly.

The process whereby a cell's determined state is expressed is called _______.

Give a brief definition of a homeobox.

Which functions earlier in development: maternal- effect genes or zygotic genes?

Immediately after fertilization of a Drosophila egg,the zygote nucleus undergoes a series of divisions.Subsequent nuclear migration generates an_______.

Caenorhabditis elegans is extremely useful as an experimental model system due to all of the following EXCEPT_______ .

During development,many genes act in such a way as to decrease the number of alternative developmental pathways that a cell can follow.Usually there are two alternative developmental paths for a cell to follow.What is the term given to genes that act in this fashion?

Experiments involving nuclear transplantation in amphibians indicate that nuclei derived from blastula are more likely to support development of complete and normal adults compared with those derived from later stages of development.What do these experiments tell us about the process of development?

The process whereby a cell's eventual developmental fate is set is called _______.

Which of the following is not a set of master regulatory genes that control homeobox genes during development?