New Origin Idea For Cells That Gave Rise To Vertebrates

Friday, May 8, 2015 - 17:40 in Biology & Nature

The vivid pigmentation of zebras, the massive jaws of sharks, the fight or flight instinct and the diverse beaks of Darwin's finches. These and other remarkable features of the world's vertebrates stem from a small group of powerful cells, called neural crest cells, but little is known about their origin. Scientists have proposes a new model for how neural crest cells, and thus vertebrates, arose more than 500 million years ago.  The researchers postulate that, unlike other early embryonic cells that have their potential progressively restricted as an embryo develops, neural crest cells retain the molecular underpinnings that control pluripotency -- the ability to give rise to all the cell types that make up the body.  read more

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