ZLY 106

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

PUBERTY

Puberty is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood, during which a growth spurt
occurs, secondary sexual characteristics appear, fertility is achieved, and profound psychological
changes take place. i.e, it is the time in life when a boy or girl becomes sexually mature.

Although the sequence of pubertal changes is relatively predictable, their timing is extremely
variable. The normal range of onset is ages 8 to 14 in females and ages 9 to 15 in males, with girls
generally experiencing physiological growth characteristic of the onset of puberty two years before
boys.

In girls:

• The first sign of puberty is usually breast development.

• Then hair grows in the pubic area and armpits.
• Menstruation (or a period) usually happens last.
In boys:
• Puberty usually begins with the testicles and penis getting bigger.
• Then hair grows in the pubic area and armpits.
• Muscles grow, the voice deepens, and facial hair develops as puberty continues.

Menopause

It is a natural biological process. It is the time of life when a woman’s ovaries stop producing
hormones and menstrual periods stop. Natural menopause usually occurs around age 50. A woman
is said to be in menopause when she hasn’t had a period for 12 months in a row.

Development Step 1: Fertilization

Fertilization is defined as the process of union of two germ cells, egg and sperm, whereby the
somatic chromosome number is restored and the development of a new individual exhibiting
characteristics of the species is initiated. If fertilization fails to take place, both egg and sperm
degenerate relatively rapidly in the female reproductive tract, since the two highly differentiated
cells cannot survive long on their own.

Fertilization is the process in which a single haploid sperm fuses with a single haploid egg to form
a zygote. The sperm and egg cells each possess specific features that make this process possible.

The egg is the largest cell produced in most animals’ species. The eggs of different species have
similar features in common. These include:

➢ Yolk: Yolk is the nutrient to support growth of the developing embryo. Eggs of different
species have different amounts of yolk.
➢ Jelly layer or zona pellucida: jelly layer surrounds each egg. It is composed of
glycoproteins (proteins that have sugars stuck to them), that release species-specific
chemoattractants (chemical-attractors) that guide sperm to the egg. In mammals, this layer
is called the zona pellucida. In placental mammals, a layer of follicular cells surrounds the
zona pellucida.
➢ Vitelline envelope: A membrane called the vitelline envelope separates the zona
pellucida/jelly layer from the egg. It is a second membrane outside of the cell’s plasma
membrane.
➢ Cortical granules: Just underneath the egg’s plasma membrane are cortical granules,
vesicles containing enzymes that will degrade the proteins that hold the vitelline envelope
around the plasma membrane when fertilization occurs.
 Figure 1: Generalized mammalian egg cell

The sperm is one of the smallest cells produced in most animal species. The sperm of different
species have similar features in common. These include:

❖ Sperm structure: The sperm consists of head containing tightly packed DNA,
a flagellar tail for swimming, and many mitochondria to provide power for sperm
movement.
❖ Bindin proteins: The plasma membrane of the sperm contains proteins called bindin,
which are species-specific proteins that recognize and bind to receptors on the egg plasma
membrane.
 ❖ Acrosome: In addition to the nucleus, the sperm head also contains an organelle called
the acrosome, which contains digestive enzymes that will degrade the jelly layer/zona
pellucida to allow the sperm to reach the egg plasma membrane.

Figure 2: The Sperm

For offspring to have only one complete diploid set of chromosomes, only one sperm can fuse with
each egg. Fusion of more than one sperm with an egg (polyspermy) is genetically incompatible
with life and results in the death of zygote.
Two mechanisms prevent polyspermy. They are the “fast block” to polyspermy and the “slow
block” to polyspermy.

Fertilization Steps
1. The sperm is attracted to and makes contact with the jelly layer/zona pellucida of the egg.
2. The interactions between receptors on the sperm cell and glycoproteins on the egg cell
initiate the acrosome reaction. Digestive enzymes are released from the acrosome in the
sperm, and the enzymes destroy the jelly layer/zona pellucida to create a pathway for the
sperm to reach the egg.
3. The sperm reaches the egg plasma membrane, and the bindin proteins on the sperm
plasma membrane contact the bindin receptors on the egg plasma membrane; this process
allows the sperm and egg membranes to fuse. Bindin proteins and bindin receptors
are species-specific, meaning that the sperm from one species is unlikely to be able to
fertilize the egg of a different species.
4. Fusion of the sperm and egg membranes initiates electrical depolarization of the entire egg
plasma membrane for 10-20 seconds, temporarily preventing any other sperm from fusing
 with the egg plasma membrane. This membrane depolarization, mediated by an influx of
sodium ions, is the fast block to polyspermy.
5. The membrane depolarization then initiates a wave of calcium released across the plasma
membrane.
6. The calcium wave initiates the cortical reaction in the egg, where the cortical
granules fuse with the egg plasma membrane, releasing digestive enzymes that degrade
the bindin receptor proteins on the egg membrane. The bindin receptors have two jobs:
they are sperm docking sites, and they also hold the vitelline layer against the plasma
membrane.
7. Destruction of the bindin receptors in the egg plasma membrane causes the vitelline layer
away from the egg plasma membrane, creating the fertilization envelope. The fertilization
envelope is a barrier that prevents additional sperm from reaching the egg, and is the slow
block to polyspermy.
8. These events culminate in egg activation, causing the egg to recognize that fertilization
has occurred and resulting in initiation of development.
 Figure 3: Fertilization Process
(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=696998)

Development Step 2: Cleavage and Blastula Stage

After fertilization activates the egg, the egg begins a series of rapid cell divisions called cleavage
(Figure 4). Typical, non-cleavage cell division occurs every 18-24 hours, but cleavage cell
divisions can occur as frequently as every 10 minutes. During cleavage, the cells divide without
growing between divisions, so the large single-celled zygote divides into smaller and smaller cells
called blastomeres. After the cleavage has produced over 100 blastomeres, the embryo is called
a blastula. The blastula is usually a spherical layer of blastomeres that are considered to be the
first embryonic tissue, the blastoderm. The blastoderm surrounds a fluid-filled or yolk-filled
cavity, called the blastocoel (a coelum is a body cavity). The blastocoel is absolutely essential for
the next step of development, gastrulation.

Figure 4: Cleavage
The stages of development are very similar across most animal lineages. But later stages of
cleavage are a little different in mammals: the mammalian blastula is called a blastocyst, and,
unlike the blastulas of other animal lineages, the blastocyst has an “inner cell mass” and an outer
cell layer called the trophoblast. The inner cell mass will go on to form the embryo, and the
trophoblast will go on to form embryonic portion of placenta. Cleavage in a placental mammal is
illustrated in the diagram below.

Figure 5

Figure 5: Cleavage in mammals

Development Step 3: Gastrulation
At the end of cleavage, the typical blastula is a ball of cells with a hollow cavity in the middle
(the blastocoel). The next stage in embryonic development is gastrulation, in which the cells in
the blastula rearrange themselves to form three layers of cells and form the body plan. The embryo
during this stage is called a gastrula. Gastrulation results in three important outcomes:
1. The formation of the embryonic tissues, called germ layers. In organisms with three
germ layers (triploblasts), the layers include the endoderm,
ectoderm, and mesoderm (organisms with two germ layers – diploblasts – lack a
mesoderm). Each germ layer will later differentiate into specialized tissues and organ
systems.
2. The formation of the embryonic gut, the archenteron.
3. The appearance of the major body axes. In some species, as a result of cytoplasmic
determinants and/or yolk polarity, the information specifying the body axes was
already present during cleavage but the axes do not become visible until after
gastrulation.
The specific details of gastrulation are different among different animal lineages, but the general
process includes dramatic movement of cells both across and inside the embryo:

In triploblasts (animals with three embryonic germ layers), one group of cells moves into the
blastocoel, the interior of the embryo, through an invagination called the blastopore. These
interior cells form the endoderm. Another group of cells move to completely surround the
embryo, forming the ectoderm, and a third group of cells move into the locations in between the
outer and inner layers of cells, to form the mesoderm. The endodermal cells continue through the
interior of the embryo until they reach the other side, creating a continuous tract through the
embryo; this tract is the archenteron, or embryonic gut. In deuterostomes, the blastopore becomes
the embryo’s anus.
▪ The ectoderm gives rise to the nervous system the skin epidermis, and the epithelial lining
of the mouth and rectum.
▪ The mesoderm gives rise to muscle cells and skeletal cells, the circulatory system, and the
reproductive organs.
 ▪ The endoderm gives rise to many internal organs such as the liver and pancreas, and the
epithelial lining of the digestive and respiratory systems.

Development Stage 4: Organogenesis

Gastrulation leads to the formation of the three germ layers; the germ layers ultimately lead to
development of the different organs in the animal body. This process is called organogenesis.
Therefore, organogenesis is the formation of organs from the germ cells. Organogenesis is
characterized by rapid and precise movements of the cells within the embryo.
In vertebrates, one of the primary steps during organogenesis is the formation of the nervous
system. Interestingly, the nervous system originates from ectodermal, not mesodermal tissue.
During the formation of the neural system, induction causes some cells at the edge of the ectoderm
to become epidermis cells. The remaining cells in the center form the neural plate, which will go
on to form the nervous system.
Immediately beneath the neural plate is a rod-shaped mesodermal structure called the notochord.
The notochord signals the neural plate cells to fold over to form a tube called the neural tube
(Figure 6). During later development, the notochord will disappear (it goes on to form part of the
spongy discs between the vertebrae), and the neural tube will give rise to the brain and the spinal
cord.
Figure 6: The central region of the ectoderm forms the neural tube, which gives rise to the
brain and the spinal cord

The mesoderm that lies on either side of the vertebrate neural tube will develop into the various
connective tissues of the animal body. A spatial pattern of gene expression reorganizes the
mesoderm into groups of cells called somites with spaces between them. The somites, illustrated
in Figure 7 will further develop into the ribs, lungs, and segmental (spine) muscle. The mesoderm
also forms a structure called the notochord, which is rod-shaped and forms the central axis of the
animal body.
Figure 7: In this five-week old human embryo, somites are segments along the length of the
body