Question

why is gene regulation necessary in the development of multicellular organisms?

Answer 1

Do you have any idea the answer?

Answer 2

I remember that gene regulation is necessary to cell specialization, but that's about it, I don't even remember how it's necessary.

Answer 3

Multicellular organisms have more organ systems, which means they depend on more cells to live. Unicellular organism don't have to worry about that as much i believe

Answer 4

I'm still not really understanding.

Answer 5

You should contact your teacher for further help then

Answer 6

Ok thank you.

Answer 7

on fertilization of an egg and sperm the resulting zygote is a unicellular diploid cell. This cell undergoes massive proliferation to give rise to all different cell types of the body ie neurons , heart muscles , hepatocytes (liver cells) etc. All these cell types result from MITOTIC divisions of the zygote and hence should possess the same genome (same set of genes) but still they are structurally and functionally different. for eg Neurons have axons and dendrites whereas hepatocytes don't , similarly neurons release neurotransmitters whereas hepatocytes don't . How is this possible ? both cells contain the same set of genes but they are morphologically and functionally different. The answer lies is gene regulation. During development the zygote divides to give a population of homogenous cells . As development progresses specific sets of genes are switched off and others are turned on to give rise to the specialized cell types of the body . Taking the above eg in cells which are destined to become neurons the genes responsible for neurotransmitter synthesis are switched on , whereas in cells destined to become hepatocytes the same neurotransmitter synthesizing genes are switched off. In short to create the different cell types of your body gene regulation is important during development.1

Answer 8

Thank you