How do individual cells work together to form organs? For example, how does a heart cell know it’s a heart cell and know what to do?
In: Biology
Each cell in your body contains the same set of DNA, a blueprint on want to do. Very early on, when you’re just a clump of cells in the womb, a series of chemical reactions start telling different cells what part of those blueprints to read. Cells differentiate into different types, and then that type of cell has its job forever, and any of its children will take on the same job. Your cells don’t really know what they are or what they’re supposed to do. They just follow the instruction booklet in their hand that was passed down to them through generations.
Each individual worker at a construction site doesn’t know everything about what they’re building, but the electricians and crane operators and everyone else follows their jobs and the instructions they have, and at the end of it all you have a brand new skyscraper. In a similar sense, your cells don’t “know” what an organ is or how to make one, they’re just doing their jobs given to them by their DNA. Those instructions are already divided up before hand so that if everyone does their job properly, you’ll wind up with all of your organs and bits and pieces that you need to live.
I don’t think that scientists know exactly, but even at very very early stages foetal cells are exposed to different concentrations of hormones and chemicals eg some may be on the outside of the growing embryo, and others will be on the inside. It is possible that these different concentrations trigger the cells to develop different characteristics.
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