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Stem Cell Biology: An Overview
Published in Jyoti Ranjan Rout, Rout George Kerry, Abinash Dutta, Biotechnological Advances for Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Nanotechnology, 2022
A sperm fuses with an ovum to form a single-celled zygote that later forms an embryo. This division goes on till an entire organism is formed consisting of billions of specific cells arranged in an orderly fashion to perform specific tasks. All these specific cells arose from a single-celled zygote, a totipotent stem cell with the potential to form any kind of cells. The importance of stem cells lies in the fact that these are the only cells in the body with the ability to generate all other cells. Historical timeline of stem cell research can be dated back to 1962 when Sir John Gurdon successfully generated tadpoles from an enucleated frog egg cell transplanted with intestinal epithelial somatic cell nucleus without fertilization. This method was termed as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) (Gurdon, 1962). Using the same SCNT method, Sir Ian Wilmut cloned Dolly in 1997 (Wilmut et al., 1997). These two scientific endeavors proved the notion that a somatic cell nucleus contains all the essential information needed to generate the whole organism and the egg cell possesses enough factors necessary for the reprogramming of the somatic cell. Table 12.1 shows the historical timeline of stem cell research.
Glossary of scientific and technical terms in bioengineering and biological engineering
Published in Megh R. Goyal, Scientific and Technical Terms in Bioengineering and Biological Engineering, 2018
Sperm is an abbreviation for spermatozoon. A sperm (plural spermatozoa; from Ancient Greek: σπέρμα “seed” and Ancient Greek: ζῷον “living being”) is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote. A zygote is a single cell, with a complete set of chromosomes, that normally develops into an embryo. Sperm cells contribute approximately half of the nuclear genetic information to the diploid offspring (excluding, in most cases, mitochondrial DNA). In mammals, the sex of the offspring is determined by the sperm cell: a spermatozoon bearing a Y chromosome will lead to a male (XY) offspring, while one bearing an X chromosome will lead to a female (XX) offspring. Sperm cells were first observed by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1677.
Autonomous Mental Development
Published in Bogdan M. Wilamowski, J. David Irwin, Intelligent Systems, 2018
A human being starts to develop from the time of conception. At that time, a single cell called a zygote is formed. In biology, the term genotype refers to all or part of the genetic constitution of an organism. The term phenotype refers to all or part of the visible properties of an organism that are produced through the interaction between the genotype and the environment. In the zygote, all the genetic constitution is called genome, which mostly resides in the nucleus of a cell. At the conception of a new human life, a biological program called the developmental program starts to run. The code of this program is the genome, but this program needs the entire cell as well as the cell’s environment to run properly.
Adverse health effects and stresses on offspring due to paternal exposure to harmful substances
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2023
Jiaqi Sun, Miaomiao Teng, Fengchang Wu, Xiaoli Zhao, Yunxia Li, Lihui Zhao, Wentian Zhao, Keng Po Lai, Kenneth Mei Yee Leung, John P. Giesy
Epigenetic information related to intergenerational and transgenerational inheritance of acquired traits is stored and transmitted in sperm (Jawaid et al., 2021; Surén et al., 2014). Modification of methylations of DNA might be one of the most fully studied epigenetic phenomena. There is much evidence that DNA methylation is inherited from the paternal generation to offspring, the term “methylation” is also specifically reflected in the hotspot tag view shown in Figure S2. It is believed that the influence of paternal lines on their offspring is likely determined by the genetic material carried by sperm. However, there are still issues to be solved to understand genetic effects, such as how the sperm epigenetic genome is encoded in complex environments and how these epigenetic modifications in sperm affect zygote development and offspring behavior.
GENOMICS: How genome sequencing will change our lives
Published in The New Bioethics, 2023
I now move on to some of the specific factual errors, presenting them as a list: − The cost of the Human Genome Project was 1$ per base pair, not 1$ per gene (p. 21)− The drug Ivacaftor, used as a treatment for cystic fibrosis, does not ‘produce the missing [CFTR] protein’ (as stated by Professor David Packham, Leeds University). The drug is a complex phenolic compound that binds to the defective channel protein, forcing the ion channel to open (p. 24)− Heritable genome editing is currently achieved by editing the genome of the zygote (one-cell embryo) not the eggs and sperm. The eggs or sperm produced by the adult that develops from the zygote will carry the edit (p. 49)− HIV is not a heritable disease (p.50)− Malaria is not caused by a virus but by a mosquito-transmissible protist. (p. 93)
Scientific and Ethical Issues in Mitochondrial Donation
Published in The New Bioethics, 2018
Lyndsey Craven, Julie Murphy, Doug M. Turnbull, Robert W. Taylor, Grainne S. Gorman, Robert McFarland
The process of mitochondrial donation involves removing the nuclear genome from an oocyte (or zygote) that contains mutant mtDNA and transferring it to a donor oocyte (or zygote) with wild-type mtDNA that has its own nuclear genome removed (Figure 2). The reconstituted oocyte (or zygote) contains the nuclear DNA from the intending parents and the mtDNA from a donor, meaning that the resulting child will be genetically related to both parents but will have a much lower risk of developing mtDNA disease. The combination of three people’s DNA, namely the mother and father’s nuclear DNA and the donor’s mtDNA, led to the alternate and now widely used term ‘three parent baby’. This term, coined and often used by the media, is considered inaccurate and has resulted in misconceptions around the technique. At the same time, it is a term that is known by many and has increased awareness of mitochondrial disease, which can ultimately only benefit patients and patient groups.