Magic embryology: from initial chaos (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, October 11, 2024, 19:38 (11 days ago) @ David Turell

New analyses of the actions:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/10/241010142527.htm

"Embryo development starts when a single egg cell is fertilized and starts dividing continuously. Initially a chaotic cluster, it gradually evolves into a highly organized structure. An international team of researchers...has provided new insights into the process, emphasizing the critical role of both chaos and order.

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"The international team of researchers has built a comprehensive atlas of early mammalian morphogenesis -- the process of an organism developing shape and structure -- analyzing how mouse, rabbit, and monkey embryos develop in space and time. Based on this atlas, they see that individual events such as cell divisions and movements are highly chaotic, yet the embryos as a whole end up looking very similar to one another. With this dataset, they propose a physical model that explains how a mammalian embryo builds structure from chaos.

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"...an embryo's shape is highly complex, making it difficult to determine what it means for two embryos to be similar or different. The scientists discovered that they could effectively approximate the full complexity of the structure of an embryo simply by studying the configurations of the cell-to-cell contacts. "We think that we can derive most of the important details about the morphology of an embryo by understanding the arrangements of cells or knowing which cells are physically connected -- similar to connections in a social network. This approach significantly simplifies data analysis and comparisons between different embryos," says Corominas-Murtra.

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"The model shows that physical laws drive embryos to form a specific morphology shared among mammals.

"By destabilizing most cell arrangements except a few selective ones that lower the surface energy of the embryo, physical interactions between cells can guide the formation toward a defined shape. In other words, cells tend to stick more and more together and this seemingly simple process actually drives the embryo through successive rearrangements to the most optimal packing. It's like embryos solve their own Rubik's cube. (my bold)

"The results provide a detailed look at how the development of mammalian embryos is governed by variability and robustness. Without chaos, there is no structure; one needs the other. Both are essential parts of what constitutes 'normal' development. "We're finally starting to have tools to analyze the variability of morphogenesis, which is crucial to understanding the mechanisms of developmental robustness," Hannezo summarizes. Randomness seems to be a primary force in the generation of complexity in the living world.

"By gaining more knowledge of what normal looks like, scientists also gain insights into abnormalities. This can be very helpful in areas, such as disease research, regenerative medicine, or fertility treatments."

Comment: The hyperbole of 'chaos' in the article is overreach for emphasis. The embryo is following a blueprint which involves some chaotic-like appearances. The process is highly controlled.