he rules of development at the single cell level. This information provides the foundation for future experiments with the worm, trying to determine how a cell’s fate is decided.In experimenting with the reproductive properties of the worm, scientist, Sternberg and Horvitz stumbled across a series of 3 genes, which are related to human cancer. Using the knowledge that they’ve obtained through experimentation, the scientists set about trying to determine what molecules took part in determining which cells become the vulva tissues and which become skin. They began by distinguishing the mutant worms, which was not a difficult task to undertake. The mutant worms were defective in egg laying because they had no vulva in which to expel the eggs. But because the worms were hermaphrodites, self-fertilization occurred, where the eggs internally developed and hatched within the worm’s body, eventually consuming the parent’s body. Scientists were able to determine the signal, a protein known as glp-1, for the development of the vulva. Six cells form an equivalence group, and each harbor the potential to become vulva tissues. An anchor cell in the worm’s gonads induces 3 of the cells in the equivalence group to become the vulva tissue whereas the other three become skin. If the anchor cell get knocked out, in other words get destroyed, all six cells become skin rather than the vulva. However, should the anchor cell be moved to another position, it can signal other cells to generate vulva tissues. Sternberg and Horvitz had worked with two different mutant worms, the vulvaless and the multivulva where they surprisingly found a series of three genes, which were somewhat, related to human cancer. A gene, let-23, which is very similar to the growth factor receptors in human cells and implicated in cancer, codes for a receptor on cell membranes, which binds to growth factors. The gene, in worms, interacts with ...
