How does the body know when it’s time to start puberty, or when to stop a growth spurt, for example? A lot of these things are pretty hereditary, so presumably it’s mostly genetic rather than environmental, but how does the body measure time? How does it know “this is tall enough”?
In: 74
Short answer: signals from the environment, whether that be the cellular environment and/or the physical environment (they aren’t completely separated anyway). These signals tell DNA to do certain things. That includes to stop growing. If we’re talking about a genetically determined level of height where malnutrition is not stunting growth then it’s absolutely something in the cellular environment telling certain cells to stop producing whatever they are that is causing growth.
Detailed mechanistic scientific answer: I have no fucking clue but it’s cool.
Latest Answers