Cleavage in first week of development

Cleavage

It is a series of mitotic divisions of the zygote.

Cytoplasm of zygote is successively cleavage (partitioned  ) to form a blastula consisting of increasingly smaller blastomeres (2-cell, 4-cell, 8-cell and so on)

Blastomeres are considered totipotent (capable of forming a complete embryo) upto the 4-8 cell stage (important when considering monozygotic twinning )

Blastomeres form a morula by undergoing compaction that is tight junctions are formed between the cells in the outer cell mass , thereby sealing off the inner cell mass . uvomorulin a glycoprotein found on the surface of blastomeres is involved in compaction

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