Abstract
Developmental gene regulatory networks (dGRNs) are necessary for the ontogenesis of metazoan embryos, but dGRNs generally function only within the context of pre-existing spatial anisotropies that are specified independently. Such anisotropies emerge in early oogenesis from interactions of cytoskeletal arrays and membrane patterns. The latter carry ontogenetic information in the spatial arrangements of their lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, which (1) specify targets for the localization of morphogenetic determinants in the cytoplasm, (2) generate endogenous electric fields that provide spatial coordinates for embryo development, (3) regulate intracellular signaling, and (4) mediate cell-cell interactions. Although the molecular building blocks of membrane patterns are specified, in part, by DNA sequences, their two- and three-dimensional spatial arrangements are not. Instead, membrane patterns are structurally transmitted from mother cells to daughter cells in a mode of inheritance that is independent of DNA replication. A testable model of membrane replication originally proposed by G.E. Palade and R.O. Poyton is further developed here.
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