Developmental Genetics

1) What do the homeotic "hox" genes coordinate? How does their spatial arrangement in the genome correspond to the pattern of gene action in the organism?

2) How doe the maternal genome affect early development in Drosophila?

3) Development requires cell specialization and something else.... what else?

4) How do maternal proteins influence the activity of zygotic 'gap' genes?

5) How do cells co-ordinate their development with other cells? Include a reference to signal transduction pathways.

6) How does the first step in tissue differentiation occur in the development of the vulva in C. elegans - between two cells that are initially identical?

7) There are developmental genes in plants, too, that cause differentiation of "whorls" of tissue in a flower bud. What four types of structures are encoded four by these developmental genes?

8) Describe and experiment demonstrating the extraordinary homology between hox or selector genes in flies and mammals.

9) Epigenetic effects are also critical in development. Describe how coiling in snal development is influenced epigenetically.

10) Describe how royalactin and 10HDA in royal jelly influence the development of female bees into queens.

11) There is some suggestion that, by affecting the imprinting of genes, the regulatory pattern may change in a heritable way. Describe how the Dutch Famine relates.

12) Are these changes "Lamarckian"? Does that refute Darwinian evolution?