Even before the fertilised egg or zygote can start dividing into daughter cells that form the future tissues and organs during the development of a multicellular organism, the symmetrical zygote needs to become asymmetrical or polarised in shape and molecular organisation. The master switch that triggers the symmetry breaking process in the zygotes of the nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), was identified in a recent study, led by Assistant Professor Fumio Motegi, Principal Investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). This work was published in Developmental Cell in March 2019.
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