A patch of tissue in the blastocyst that includes tissue from all three germ layers and seems to direct the body orientation, proportions, and growth for the entire body of the embryo. The organizer was discovered by Hilde Mangold, but Hans Spemann received the credit for its discovery after Mangold’s early death. The discovery of Hox genes helped explain how the Organizer functions and controls the cells of the body.
Organizer Quotes in Your Inner Fish
The Your Inner Fish quotes below are all either spoken by Organizer or refer to Organizer. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6
Quotes
Mangold had discovered a small patch of tissue that was able to direct other cells to form an entire body plan. The tiny, incredibly important patch of tissue containing all this information was to be known as the Organizer… Today, many scientists consider Mangold's work to be the single most important experiment in the history of embryology.
Related Characters:
Neil Shubin (speaker), Hans Spemann, Hilde Mangold
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Organizer Term Timeline in Your Inner Fish
The timeline below shows where the term Organizer appears in Your Inner Fish. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: The Best-laid (Body) Plans
...the back of the other embryo. Mangold called the patch of tissue she transplanted the Organizer.
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...that shows where all the adult organs of an animal begin in the embryo. The Organizer somehow directs each clump of cells in the embryo to become the correct body plan...
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DNA and the Organizer. After Spemann and Mangold found the Organizer, the patch of tissue was mostly abandoned by...
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Another researcher, Richard Harland at Berkeley, found a gene called “Noggin” that works like an Organizer gene, telling the embryo where to make a head. Many genes like Noggin interact to...
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