All forms of multicellular life here on Earth begin with just a single cell.
From this one cell springs a stream of specialized cells that go on to serve needed functions to create and keep a new life-form alive.
This complex process is one of nature’s greatest mysteries.
A zebrafish egg cell forms a complex embryo in only a few hours. (Fengzhu Xiong and Sean Megason)
But now, scientists from the Harvard Medical School and Harvard University say they have tracked the progression of how one cell builds into a more complex lifeform.
The researchers used single-cell sequencing technology to meticulously outline individual cells in developing zebrafish and frog embryos over the first day of life.
This allowed them to build a detailed roadmap of how multicellular life can be built from one solitary cell.
The researchers’ findings were described in three studies that were published in the journal, Science.
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