Development Stages

[DavidSnider]

What is the internal timer that tells your body "OK, It's time to start producing more XYZ kinds of cell now that you are becoming adult".

Does your brain keep track of this? Is it just like a chemical time bomb? How does that work?

[Monique]

Good question, but that is a really complicated process and depends on what developmental stage or what tissue you are talking about. There are master regulators, in simpler organisms you can have a mutation in a single gene that will cause a developmental stage to be erroneously repeated or skipped. Genes with such defects are called heterochronic genes (http://genetics.mgh.harvard.edu/RuvkunWeb/projects/4-HeterochronicGenes.pdf).

[JonMoulton]

A good discussion of that topic is the book titled:
Coming to Life, How Genes Drive Development
Author: Christine Nusslein-Volhard
Publisher: Kales Press, Inc.
ISBN 0-9670076-7-4
2006

The book compares some major genes involved in embryonic pattern formation, their interactions, and compares their activity between different model organisms.

[Monique]

Were you at all interested in an answer, DavidSnider?

[DavidSnider]

Were you at all interested in an answer, DavidSnider?

Oh, yes. I am ordering that book from Amazon.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Monique]

Nice to hear! I can also recommend Developmental Biology by Scott F. Gilbert, it is a text book that discusses the developmental process of embryogenesis in different organisms in detail. Here's the on-line resource http://8e.devbio.com/

[JonMoulton]

Here's another vote for Gilbert's text. The Nusslein-Volhard book is a nice intro, but Gilbert goes into far more depth and detail.