I know that genes control what proteins get synthesized by cells, but how does that determine the overall structure of an organism?
In: Biology
Chemical signalling between the cells in the developing organism. When some cell starts differentiating into a certain type it lets the others know by releasing some chemicals. Cells are programmed to know what to do based on how strong the signal is and where is it coming from.
Fun fact! At a certain stage of human development, the general layout of the organs is decided based on how certain chemicals cycle in the embryo and this flow is created by cillia. But if there is a mutation in one of the cillial proteins and they don’t move properly, the layout is decided at random – which results in half of people with this mutation having so called situs inversus, i.e. mirror-flipped organs (heart on the right, liver on the left etc.).
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