How do genes tell a baby turtle to follow the moon to the ocean after birth?
In: Biology
I see a little gap in what people are saying, so I’ll try to explain the process of “hard-wiring” others are mentioning in a simple way:
When the embryo is just a couple of cells, the DNA is being read by a long process that eventually works as like an instruction manual on how to build all sorts of different proteins. Proteins do everything and anything kinda, so they can act as signal molecules that tell all the cells how to develop and such ie there are cells that give off more of a certain protein that tell the cells around them to start making arms, legs etc. In the process of building a body from scratch, these proteins also dictate how the brain works, and what chemical stimuli the brain should respond to. One of those signals is the light from the moon, or tragically, light posts, flashlights, etc. The light hits their eyes and sends chemical/electrical signals to the brain which is primed to send the turtle in that direction (whether or not that’s the ocean) at that early(ish) stage in the brain’s development.
Edit: For those asking for more details and/or a more authoritative or generalized explanation of some of this, u/PotatoBasedRobot shared [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/irxncu/how_does_a_cell_know_what_to_become_if_they_all/g54ffw9?context=3) link to another reddit comment I found to be informative and clearly written.
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