Gastrulation and

Neurulation
RAMYA NITHARSAN
What happens before gastrulation?
1. As cell division continues in the morula, what happens to its shape?
2. What is the inner cell mass known as and what does it go on to become? What source of cells
is it?
3. Before gastrulation, what are the two different strata the trophoblast cells differentiate into?
NB The trophoblasts do not contribute to the formation of the embryo
4. How the syncytiotrophoblast related to IUGR? And what is IUGR?
5. What impact can IUGR have on the baby?
6. What is the embryonic disc derived from?
Preceding Gastrulation
1. How does the bilaminar embryological disc change during gastrulation?
2. Through what process and what does the notochord induce the formation of in the
embryonic disc?
3. What does the epiblast form the floor of?
4. What function does the yolk sac have in humans?
5. Why is the yolk sac important in scans? What does the yolk go on to become?
6. What type of tissue are the epiblast and the hypoblast?
7. At what point is the blastocyst completed implanted?
GASTRULATION
1. The formation of what structure marks the beginning of gastrulation? What comes after
this?
2. What movement signifies gastrulation?
3. What tissue will the ectoderm give rise to? (2)
4. What structures will the mesoderm develop into? And what will those structures then
differentiate into? (6)
5. What will the endoderm develop into? (2)
6. What is epiboly?
7. What is the purpose of gastrulation?
Gastrulation
1. What axes are produced? (3)
2. What is produced that aids with digestion in the baby?
3. What are the four factors that facilitate gastrulation?
4. What happens to the notochord?
NEURALATION (3rd week)
1. What tube is formed in neurulation? What trilaminal layer is
it formed in and what is it formed above?
2. What marks the beginning and the end of neurulation?
3. What is the primary inductive event?
4. Which part of the fetus does the neural plate begin?
5. What 3 things does neurulation require?
Neural Induction
1. What family of proteins appear to induce the ectoderm and mesoderm
derived tissues and organs?
2. What does the sonic hedgehog protein (Shh) do? (2)
3. What family of proteins regulate cell differentiation?
 Primary Neurulation
1. In primary neurulation, what are the three sets of cells that the ectoderm is divided into?
2. When the neural plate is being formed, what node does it develop right behind? And where does it migrate
during gastrulation?
3. What allows the cells to stick together when the neural tube is closing?
4. In which direction does the neural tube close and at what speed?
Formation of the brain
1. Forebrain forms:
Telencephalon 
Diencephalon 
2. Midbrain forms:
Mesencephalon 
3. Hindbrain forms:
Metencephalon 
Myelencephalon  medulla.
Spina bifida
1. What is spina bifida?
2. What is spina bifida occulta?
3. How can spina bifida occulta be spotted?
4. What is anencephaly?
 What happens to the neural crest cells?
What happens to the neural
crest cells on the border of
the neural plate as the neural
tube is folding? And what do
they form dorsally and
ventrally?
Depending on where they are
in the body denotes which
particular structures they
form.
Neural Crest cells
1. What are neural crest cells?
2. In what region do the neural crest cells give rise to cartilage, bone, glia and connective
tissues of the face, bones of the middle ear and the tooth primordia?
3. In what region do the neural crest cells give rise to dorsal root ganglia and sensory neurons,
sympathetic ganglia, melanocytes (all pigment cells of the body)?
4. In what region do the neural crest cells give rise to parasympathetic nerves of gut?
5. In what region do the neural crest cells give rise to melanocytes, neurons and division
between aorta & pulmonary artery?
Somitogenesis
What are somites?
What do the somites develop into? (3)
What are the 4 different compartments that make up a somite?
How come the somites form in identical pairs that differentiate into the same cell type but into
different structures?