The sperm and the egg cell's nuclei compete for size directly after fertilization and this is necessary for proper embryonic ...

A University of California, Riverside study reports that cells in the earliest stages of human development could be ...

Study finds early-stage ectoderm cells are especially susceptible, raising questions about potential developmental risks ...

In the earliest hours after fertilization, an embryo takes its first steps toward becoming a living organism by shedding maternal control and activating its own genetic program. This critical process, ...

Biologists have provided new insights on a longstanding puzzle in biology: How complex organisms arise from a single fertilized cell. Producing a new 'gene atlas' with 4-D imaging, the researchers ...

Transposable elements are stretches of DNA that can move around the genome. Many of these DNA sequences originate from long ago, when viruses inserted their genetic material into our ancestors' ...

The development of an embryo is one of the most fundamental processes in biology. Early in this process, it is determined ...

Understanding how cells differentiate during early embryonic development is crucial for advancing regenerative medicine and developmental biology. Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have been invaluable ...

Image of mouse embryos at the 2-cell stage visualised by light microscopy. Two blastomeres (cells) can be seen inside the zona pellucida (a “shell-like” protective outer layer) of each embryo. Credit: ...