[Campbell Biology P.430] The text states that 'A program of differential gene expression lea... | Practice Question

The text states that 'A program of differential gene expression leads to the different cell types in a multicellular organism.' Based on this, which of the following scenarios would most likely occur if this program were severely disrupted during early embryonic development?

  • A: The zygote would develop into a large mass of mostly identical, unspecialized cells.
  • B: The organism would mature normally but exhibit significant delays in growth rate.
  • C: Only single-celled organisms would be formed instead of multicellular ones.
  • D: All cells would undergo apoptosis immediately, leading to early embryonic death.

Explanation

The text states that 'Cell division alone, however, would merely produce a great ball of identical cells, nothing like a tadpole.' If the 'program of differential gene expression' is severely disrupted, cells would continue to divide but fail to differentiate into specialized structures and functions, resulting in an unorganized mass of undifferentiated cells, similar to what would happen with only cell division and no differentiation or morphogenesis.