Abstract
Embryonic development is not totally an epigenetic phenomenon but is clearly dependent upon the cytoplasmic organization present in the egg at the inception of development. While the general acceptance of the theory of differential gene activity as the basic epigenetic mechanism is an important advance in our understanding of development, it is only more recently that the presence of organized cytoplasmic “information” in the egg is recognized to be one of the key mechanisms for establishing the sequence of differential gene action that characterizes development (the argument for this understanding of development has been thoroughly and brilliantly explained by Davidson, 1968). The best example of such developmentally significant localizations of the egg cytoplasm are the polar granules or “germ cell determinants” of insects. These organelles are found in a variety of species principally within the insect orders Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera. Their developmental significance was indicated morphologically, in that they were incorporated into one or more cells which then gave rise to the primordial germ cells of the embryo, and then experimentally, by Hegner (1911) who found that if the posterior pole plasm was destroyed by cauterization, normal embryos were formed except that they lacked germ cells. Hegner termed these organelles “germ cell determinants” and the search was begun to find other examples of organ determinants in other embryonic systems.
This work has been supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation, GB-5155, GB-5780 and GB-7980.
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Mahowald, A.P. (1971). Origin and Continuity of Polar Granules. In: Reinert, J., Ursprung, H. (eds) Origin and Continuity of Cell Organelles. Results and Problems in Cell Differentiation, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36396-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-36396-5_6
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