Live imaging of embryos at different stages. Chromosomes are labeled in magenta. 4-cell sister blastomeres are shown, along with 3D-reconstructed images of 2-to-4-cell and 4-to-8-cell divisions.

At the end of the 4-cell stage, embryos divide to the 8-cell stage, forming many different shapes and high variability between embryos. Then, cells increase their surface tension which brings cells ...

Embryo development starts when a single egg cell is fertilized and starts dividing continuously. Initially a chaotic cluster, it gradually evolves into a highly organized structure. Scientists have ...

A new discovery by researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics (BDR) in Japan upends decades of assumptions regarding DNA replication. Led by Ichiro Hiratani and colleagues, the ...

The curved shape of a zebrafish egg causes unequal cell divisions, creating larger cells near the animal pole and smaller ...

Researchers at Sinai Health have found that a critical transition in early human development is regulated not by our genes, but by DNA elements called transposons that can move around the genome. The ...

What do the earliest stages of a pregnancy look like? Embryonic development has been extensively studied, but most of our knowledge of the earliest stages of a growing baby come from stationary ...

The mystery of early embryonic communication is starting to be unraveled thanks to a new stem cell-based model.

A research team showed that, contrary to current models, one early embryonic cell dominates lineages that will become the fetus. “They are not identical,” said Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a ...

A discovery upends decades of assumptions regarding DNA replication. The study show that DNA replication in early embryos is different from what past research has taught, and includes a period of ...