Question

When bone marrow cells go through the cell cycle, the two identical daughter cells that result form mitosis have very different functions. Following g1, one daughter cell leaves the cell cycle and becomes a specialized blood cell. The second marrow cell remains in the marrow as a stem cell and repeats the cell cycle. What molecule is responsible for determining the fate of each cell?

Answer 1

The cell-intrinsic properties arise from a cleavage of a cell with asymmetrically expressed maternal cytoplasmic determinants (proteins, small regulatory RNAs and mRNA). Thus, the fate of the cell depends on factors secreted into its cytoplasm during cleavage.