Ramos, Carl | Ramos, Diego | Ramos, Rollene | Samonte, Dana Z303L

4BIOLOGY6
GROUP 8

EXERCISE 3
GUIDE QUESTIONS

1. Why are the cells in the animal pole and vegetal pole of a medialecithal blastula
different in terms of size? What has gravity got to do with it?
Their sizes differ due to their designated function. Cells in the vegetal pole are
nutrient reservoirs, having their contents absorbed slowly while the animal cells divide.
The animal cells on the other hand, stays at a certain size and can no longer grow due
to surface and volume limits. Gravity also affects this due to gravitational forces making
the (most of) yolk within settle to the bottom of the egg, forming what is known as the
vegetal pole.

2. Why are animal poles and vegetal poles not observable in microlecithal eggs?
In microlecithal eggs the amount of yolk is less than the amount of cytoplasm.
Microlecithal eggs are isolecithal based in their yolk distribution. The distribution of yolk
in isolecithal is evenly distributed which is a condition observed in eggs containing a little
amount of yolk.

3. Compare the location and characteristics of the blastocoel in a microlecithal,

medialecithal and macrolecithal type of egg. Give reasons for their differences.
In a microlecithal type, the blastocoel occupies most of the cell, almost the same
size as the cell itself, as it exhibits an equal holoblastic cleavage. In a medialecithal type,
the blastocoel, compared from the microlecithal, is smaller and more inclined to the
animal pole where it divides more quickly than the vegetal pole, where it exhibits an
unequal holoblastic cleavage. In a macrolecithal type, the blastocoel is situated between
the epiblast and hypoblast layers, which would be important for the development of the
primitive streak. With all that in mind, the amount of yolk and the type of cleavage
division affects the formation of the blastocoel.

4. What are the end-products of the gastrulation?

The end-products of gastrulation had accomplished several important things
which: the three primary germ layers are established. The basic body plan is
established, including the physical construction of the rudimentary primary body axes.
The notochord is formed from the mesoderm and will send signals to the the overlying
ectoderm at its third week, inducing it to become neuroectoderm, and will results in a
strip of neuronal stem cells that runs along the back of the fetus, called the neural plate,
and it is the origin of the entire nervous system. The neural plate folds outwards to form
the neural groove. Starting from the future neck region, the neural folds of this groove
close to create the neural tube. In general, the neural plate forming a cord-like structure
that migrates inside the embryo and hollows to form the tube. Each organism uses
primary and secondary neurulation to varying degrees.