Gastrulation is the stage in the early embryonic development of most animals, during which the blastula, or in mammals the blastocyst is reorganized into a two-layered or three-layered embryo known as the gastrula. Before gastrulation, the embryo is a continuous epithelial sheet of cells; by the end of gastrulation, the embryo has begun differentiation to establish distinct cell lineages, set up the basic axes of the body, and internalized one or more cell types including the prospective gut.
The ectoderm is one of the three primary germ layers formed in early embryonic development. It is the outermost layer, and is superficial to the mesoderm and endoderm. It emerges and originates from the outer layer of germ cells. The word ectoderm comes from the Greek ektos meaning "outside", and derma meaning "skin".
Endoderm is the innermost of the three primary germ layers in the very early embryo. The other two layers are the ectoderm and mesoderm. Cells migrating inward along the archenteron form the inner layer of the gastrula, which develops into the endoderm.
Invagination is the process of a surface folding in on itself to form a cavity, pouch or tube. In developmental biology, invagination is a mechanism that takes place during gastrulation. This mechanism or cell movement happens mostly in the vegetal pole. Invagination consists of the folding of an area of the exterior sheet of cells towards the inside of the blastula. In each organism, the complexity will be different depending on the number of cells. Invagination can be referenced as one of the steps of the establishment of the body plan. The term, originally used in embryology, has been adopted in other disciplines as well.
The blastocoel, also spelled blastocoele and blastocele, and also called cleavage cavity, or segmentation cavity is a fluid-filled or yolk-filled cavity that forms in the blastula during very early embryonic development. At this stage in mammals the blastula develops into the blastocyst containing an inner cell mass, and outer trophectoderm.
A germ layer is a primary layer of cells that forms during embryonic development. The three germ layers in vertebrates are particularly pronounced; however, all eumetazoans produce two or three primary germ layers. Some animals, like cnidarians, produce two germ layers making them diploblastic. Other animals such as bilaterians produce a third layer between these two layers, making them triploblastic. Germ layers eventually give rise to all of an animal's tissues and organs through the process of organogenesis.
In developmental biology, animal embryonic development, also known as animal embryogenesis, is the developmental stage of an animal embryo. Embryonic development starts with the fertilization of an egg cell (ovum) by a sperm cell, (spermatozoon). Once fertilized, the ovum becomes a single diploid cell known as a zygote. The zygote undergoes mitotic divisions with no significant growth and cellular differentiation, leading to development of a multicellular embryo after passing through an organizational checkpoint during mid-embryogenesis. In mammals, the term refers chiefly to the early stages of prenatal development, whereas the terms fetus and fetal development describe later stages.
A neurula is a vertebrate embryo at the early stage of development in which neurulation occurs. The neurula stage is preceded by the gastrula stage; consequentially, neurulation is preceded by gastrulation. Neurulation marks the beginning of the process of organogenesis.
The primitive node is the organizer for gastrulation in most amniote embryos. In birds it is known as Hensen's node, and in amphibians it is known as the Spemann-Mangold organizer. It is induced by the Nieuwkoop center in amphibians, or by the posterior marginal zone in amniotes including birds.
In amniote embryonic development, the epiblast is one of two distinct cell layers arising from the inner cell mass in the mammalian blastocyst, or from the blastula in reptiles and birds, the other layer is the hypoblast. It drives the embryo proper through its differentiation into the three primary germ layers, ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm, during gastrulation. The amniotic ectoderm and extraembryonic mesoderm also originate from the epiblast.
The bilaminar embryonic disc, bilaminar blastoderm or embryonic disc is the distinct two-layered structure of cells formed in an embryo. In the development of the human embryo this takes place by day eight. It is formed when the inner cell mass, also known as the embryoblast, forms a bilaminar disc of two layers, an upper layer called the epiblast and a lower layer called the hypoblast, which will eventually form into fetus. These two layers of cells are stretched between two fluid-filled cavities at either end: the primitive yolk sac and the amniotic sac.
In the field of developmental biology, regional differentiation is the process by which different areas are identified in the development of the early embryo. The process by which the cells become specified differs between organisms.
Enterocoelom describes both the process by which some animal embryos develop and the origin of the cells involved. In enterocoely, a mesoderm is formed in a developing embryo, in which the coelom appears from pouches growing and separating from the digestive tract. As the incipient coelomic epithelium originates from archenteral diverticula, the endoderm therefore gives rise to the mesodermal cells.
Convergent extension (CE), sometimes called convergence and extension (C&E), is the process by which the tissue of an embryo is restructured to converge (narrow) along one axis and extend (elongate) along a perpendicular axis by cellular movement.
Human embryonic development or human embryogenesis is the development and formation of the human embryo. It is characterised by the processes of cell division and cellular differentiation of the embryo that occurs during the early stages of development. In biological terms, the development of the human body entails growth from a one-celled zygote to an adult human being. Fertilization occurs when the sperm cell successfully enters and fuses with an egg cell (ovum). The genetic material of the sperm and egg then combine to form the single cell zygote and the germinal stage of development commences. Embryonic development in the human, covers the first eight weeks of development; at the beginning of the ninth week the embryo is termed a fetus. The eight weeks has 23 stages.
Vegetal rotation is a morphogenetic movement that drives mesoderm internalization during gastrulation in amphibian embryos. The internalization of vegetal cells prior to gastrulation was first observed in the 1930s by Abraham Mandel Schechtman through the use of vital dye labeling experiments in Triturus torosus embryos. More recently, Winklbauer and Schürfeld (1999) described the internal movements in more detail using pregastrular explants of Xenopus laevis.
Ingression is one of the many changes in the location or relative position of cells that takes place during the gastrulation stage of embryonic development. It produces an animal's mesenchymal cells at the onset of gastrulation. During the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), the primary mesenchyme cells (PMCs) detach from the epithelium and become internalized mesenchyme cells that can migrate freely.
The dorsal lip of the blastopore is a structure that forms during early embryonic development and is important for its role in organizing the germ layers. The dorsal lip is formed during early gastrulation as folding of tissue along the involuting marginal zone of the blastocoel forms an opening known as the blastopore. It is particularly important for its role in neural induction through the default model, where signaling from the dorsal lip protects a region of the epiblast from becoming epidermis, thus allowing it to develop to its default neural tissue.
This glossary of developmental biology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts commonly used in the study of developmental biology and related disciplines in biology, including embryology and reproductive biology, primarily as they pertain to vertebrate animals and particularly to humans and other mammals. The developmental biology of invertebrates, plants, fungi, and other organisms is treated in other articles; e.g terms relating to the reproduction and development of insects are listed in Glossary of entomology, and those relating to plants are listed in Glossary of botany.
