Blogs Mar 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm

The Mammalian Cell Fate Map

Jonathan Golob
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Comments

1
Clearly looks like a baby to me... with its cute red and green arms, and blue body and legs.
on March 18, 2009 at 2:57 PM Report this
2
Where do the gills and tail come in?
on March 18, 2009 at 3:01 PM Report this
3
That diagram is the coolest.

Where does life begin on that thing? Obviously, there are varying opinions (e.g. the abortion debate) but these could all be labeled in different spots or zones.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:02 PM Report this
4
Great diagram. Wow is there ever a lot of opportunities for development to go wrong!

You misspelled "ganglia" in Cranial Sensory Ganglia under the Neural Crest category. I'm not trying to nit-pick, I swear. I would hate for your thesis to be rejected because whoever it is that reveiws theses is nuts about ganglia and would be mortally offended by the slip. And it would be all my fault for not pointing it out.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:24 PM Report this
5
tabletop_joe: Sharp eye! I've put up a corrected version. Thank you.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:31 PM Report this
6
Great diagram. Thank you, I forgot how much I miss science, since I left the field (molecular biology)ages ago.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM Report this
7
Very cool.

So brains and tooth-stuff are first cousins. No wonder it hurts when it hurts!
on March 18, 2009 at 3:38 PM Report this
8
Awesome figure! May I suggest posting it on Wikipedia? They're always in need of more diagrams...
on March 18, 2009 at 3:43 PM Report this
9
Nick: Consider it licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution license.

Feel free to use it on Wikipedia.

RonK: From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes a great deal of sense for brain and skin to be, also, closely related. The entire sensory system started as specialized areas of simple organism's outer envelopes. The brain is just an inward growth of these early attempts.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:46 PM Report this
10
Science: You should copyright this chart. Have you ever used Creative Commons?
on March 18, 2009 at 3:51 PM Report this
11
Gah! Beat me to it on #9!
on March 18, 2009 at 3:52 PM Report this
12
This is great, but where does it show the actual stem cells that exist in all of us, including the ones each mother has from each potential (not just actual) child?

Just wondering.

Pluripotent stem cells are modifications of the ones you show, so that's in the right section, but it's not like they tend to occur naturally, as opposed to actual stem cells.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:54 PM Report this
13
oh, and we also call failures "cancer" if they're later on.
on March 18, 2009 at 3:56 PM Report this
14
Wow, that is a cool chart! I never knew anything about this... it's neat to see how a stem cell might be turned into "outer eye layer," or how thyroid is hanging out there by itself, or how close "anal canal" is to hair and nails... (!! wtf?!)

I really hope the next century is to life sciences/molecular biology/I'm-not-sure-what-the-term-is what the last century was to physics...
on March 18, 2009 at 4:21 PM Report this
15
I had never heard of Feynman diagrams before this. That is some heavy shit.
on March 18, 2009 at 4:33 PM Report this
16
Has anyone ever noticed that Embryonic is Em Bryon IC.

It's like they put Byron in a baby and instead of literature, he wrote the bible.
on March 18, 2009 at 4:42 PM Report this
17
the anal canal??? that's my favorite place to go swimming!
on March 18, 2009 at 5:03 PM Report this
18
Golob - if the arrows are probabilities, why not make higher probabilities thicker arrows, and lower probabilities thinner arrows? Could add a little more info into the graphic without making it a Feynman.
on March 18, 2009 at 5:24 PM Report this
19
Onion @18: True.

In fact, I've done that where I know how the arrows should be weighted--during our directed differentiation protocol that takes pluripotent stem cells to
1. mesendoderm
2. mesoderm
3. lateral mesoderm
4. splanchnic mesoderm
5. cardiac mesoderm.

In actual development, I'm not sure if anyone knows how the arrows are weighted (or, perhaps even the 'good enough' weighting of the arrows to get offspring.)

The map itself is still under some contention. A fellow scientist here in Seattle--Dr. Horwitz--is using a really clever trick to cleanly define these connections.
on March 18, 2009 at 5:54 PM Report this
20
tabletop_joe @4: Fortunately, whoever "reveiws" theses does not also "reveiw" comments :)
on March 18, 2009 at 5:57 PM Report this
21
"urinary badder" is missing an "n." My eye was drawn to this, because my final is all about that tomorrow.
on March 18, 2009 at 6:31 PM Report this
22
3
It's all alive.
on March 18, 2009 at 6:43 PM Report this
23
osustudent: Thank you as well.
on March 18, 2009 at 7:50 PM Report this
24
Jonathan, this is truly a beautiful diagram. Excellent use of color and space to convey information. You're obviously read Tufte. Good luck with the thesis defense.

God I miss science!
on March 18, 2009 at 8:53 PM Report this
25
Drew: Thanks.

I didn't agree with everything in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, but it really is a beautiful reference and cohesive graphical style manual for scientific figures.

I share Tufte's disgust for pie charts.
on March 18, 2009 at 9:07 PM Report this
26
Golub, as usual you are wowing the crowd here.

And I share Tufte's disgust for PowerPoint, and the Microsoft-fueled culture of Orwellian stupidity and mendacity:

http://www.units.muohio.edu/technologyan…

Frühlingsgrüße aus Hamburg!
on March 18, 2009 at 9:36 PM Report this
27
btw the diagram rocks.
info graphics are such eye candy.
on March 18, 2009 at 11:49 PM Report this
28
Hey why are "primitive gut endoderm" and "pharynx" not the same color as the tissues that are descended from them? in other areas of the figure, things are grouped by colors.
are the tissues descended from those headings more different from the parent than in other areas of the figure? just curious. evo/devo isn't my thing.
on March 18, 2009 at 11:53 PM Report this
29
This greatly helped me with some A+P homework due on Friday...so, a random thank you. Was not able to find such a neat/concise diagram of this anywhere else.
on March 19, 2009 at 12:13 AM Report this
30
Man, I can't believe no one's made an ensoulment joke. My suggestion would be to badly photoshop in another branch or two clarifying the development of psychederms (the cells which will later make up the soul), original sin, etc.
on March 19, 2009 at 12:19 AM Report this

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