Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Zygote
Summary
A zygote (, ) is a eukaryotic cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual organism.
In multicellular organisms, the zygote is the earliest developmental stage. In humans and most other anisogamous organisms, a zygote is formed when an egg cell and sperm cell come together to create a new unique organism. In single-celled organisms, the zygote can divide asexually by mitosis to produce identical offspring.
German zoologists Oscar and Richard Hertwig made some of the first discoveries on animal zygote formation in the late 19th century.
Development of the human body and Human fertilization
In human fertilization, a released ovum (a haploid secondary oocyte with replicate chromosome copies) and a haploid sperm cell (male gamete) combine to form a single diploid cell called the zygote. Once the single sperm fuses with the oocyte, the latter completes the division of the second meiosis forming a haploid daughter with only 23 chromosomes, almost all of the cytoplasm, and the male pronucleus. The other product of meiosis is the second polar body with only chromosomes but no ability to replicate or survive. In the fertilized daughter, DNA is then replicated in the two separate pronuclei derived from the sperm and ovum, making the zygote's chromosome number temporarily 4n diploid. After approximately 30 hours from the time of fertilization, a fusion of the pronuclei and immediate mitotic division produce two 2n diploid daughter cells called blastomeres.
Between the stages of fertilization and implantation, the developing embryo is sometimes termed as a preimplantation-conceptus. This stage has also been referred to as the pre-embryo in legal discourses including relevance to the use of embryonic stem cells. In the US the National Institutes of Health has determined that the traditional classification of pre-implantation embryo is still correct.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (2)
BIO-221: Cell and developmental biology for engineers
Students will learn essentials of cell and developmental biology with an engineering mind set, with an emphasis on animal model systems and quantitative approaches.
BIO-105: Cellular biology and biochemistry for engineers
Basic course in biochemistry as well as cellular and molecular biology for non-life science students enrolling at the Master or PhD thesis level from various engineering disciplines. It reviews essent
Related lectures (17)
Fertilization and Developmental Biology
Covers general principles and animal systems in cell and developmental biology, including fertilization, zygote formation, and recurrent special features.
Patterning Growing Organs
Delves into the mechanisms of organ patterning and growth in embryos, focusing on somitogenesis rhythm and the segmentation clock.
Fertilization: Key Points
Covers the process of fertilization, including encounter, specificity, uniqueness, fusion, activation, and the post-fertilization calcium wave.
Related publications (26)
Related people (1)
Related concepts (17)
Fertilisation
Fertilisation or fertilization (see spelling differences), also known as generative fertilisation, syngamy and impregnation, is the fusion of gametes to give rise to a new individual organism or offspring and initiate its development. While processes such as insemination or pollination which happen before the fusion of gametes are also sometimes informally referred to as fertilisation, these are technically separate processes. The cycle of fertilisation and development of new individuals is called sexual reproduction.
Egg cell
The egg cell, or ovum (: ova), is the female reproductive cell, or gamete, in most anisogamous organisms (organisms that reproduce sexually with a larger, female gamete and a smaller, male one). The term is used when the female gamete is not capable of movement (non-motile). If the male gamete (sperm) is capable of movement, the type of sexual reproduction is also classified as oogamous. A nonmotile female gamete formed in the oogonium of some algae, fungi, oomycetes, or bryophytes is an oosphere.
Embryo
An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm cell. The resulting fusion of these two cells produces a single-celled zygote that undergoes many cell divisions that produce cells known as blastomeres. The blastomeres are arranged as a solid ball that when reaching a certain size, called a morula, takes in fluid to create a cavity called a blastocoel.