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Morula
 
 
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A morula (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 "morus", mulberry
Mulberry

Morus or Mulberry is a genus of 10?16 species of deciduous trees native to warm, temperate, and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with the majority of the species native to Asia....
) is an embryo
Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular organism ploidy eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, Egg , or germination....
 at an early stage of embryonic development, consisting of cells
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
 (called blastomere
Blastomere

A blastomere is a type of Cell produced by division of the ovum after Human fertilization....
s) in a solid ball contained within the zona pellucida
Zona pellucida

The zona pellucida is a glycoprotein membrane surrounding the plasma membrane of an oocyte. It is a vital constitutive part of the latter, external but not extraneous to it....
.

morula is produced by embryonic cleavage
Cleavage (embryo)

In embryology, cleavage is the division of cell s in the early embryo. The zygotes of many species undergo rapid cell cycles with no significant growth, producing a cluster of cells the same size as the original zygote....
, the rapid division
Mitosis

Mitosis is the process in which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus, into two identical sets in two daughter nuclei....
 of the zygote
Zygote

A zygote is a cell that is the result of fertilization. That is, two ploidy cells—usually an ovum from a female and a sperm cell from a male—merge into a single ploidy cell called the zygote ....
. After reaching the 16-cell stage, the cells of the morula differentiate. The inner blastomeres will become the inner cell mass
Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus....
 and the blastomeres on the surface will later flatten to form the trophoblast
Trophoblast

Trophoblasts are cells forming the outer layer of a blastocyst, which provide nutrients to the embryo and develop into a large part of the placenta....
.






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A morula (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 "morus", mulberry
Mulberry

Morus or Mulberry is a genus of 10?16 species of deciduous trees native to warm, temperate, and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with the majority of the species native to Asia....
) is an embryo
Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular organism ploidy eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, Egg , or germination....
 at an early stage of embryonic development, consisting of cells
Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known Life organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building bricks of life....
 (called blastomere
Blastomere

A blastomere is a type of Cell produced by division of the ovum after Human fertilization....
s) in a solid ball contained within the zona pellucida
Zona pellucida

The zona pellucida is a glycoprotein membrane surrounding the plasma membrane of an oocyte. It is a vital constitutive part of the latter, external but not extraneous to it....
.

Production

The morula is produced by embryonic cleavage
Cleavage (embryo)

In embryology, cleavage is the division of cell s in the early embryo. The zygotes of many species undergo rapid cell cycles with no significant growth, producing a cluster of cells the same size as the original zygote....
, the rapid division
Mitosis

Mitosis is the process in which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus, into two identical sets in two daughter nuclei....
 of the zygote
Zygote

A zygote is a cell that is the result of fertilization. That is, two ploidy cells—usually an ovum from a female and a sperm cell from a male—merge into a single ploidy cell called the zygote ....
. After reaching the 16-cell stage, the cells of the morula differentiate. The inner blastomeres will become the inner cell mass
Inner cell mass

In early embryogenesis of most eutherian mammals, the inner cell mass is the mass of cells inside the primordial embryo that will eventually give rise to the definitive structures of the fetus....
 and the blastomeres on the surface will later flatten to form the trophoblast
Trophoblast

Trophoblasts are cells forming the outer layer of a blastocyst, which provide nutrients to the embryo and develop into a large part of the placenta....
. As this process begins, the blastomeres change their shape and tightly align themselves against each other to form a compact ball of cells. This is called compaction and is likely mediated by cell surface adhesion glycoproteins.

Development

In mammals the morula travels to the uterus
Uterus

The uterus is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals, including humans. It is within the uterus that the fetus develops during gestation....
 around 3-4 days after fertilization, and at about 4 days after fertilization a fluid-filled space called the blastocoel cavity appears and the morula becomes a blastocyst
Blastocyst

The blastocyst is the structure formed in early embryogenesis, after the formation of the blastocoel, but before implantation.It possesses an inner cell mass, or inner cell mass which subsequently forms the embryo proper, and an outer layer of cells, or trophoblast which later forms the placenta....
.

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