Zygote Homeostasis

March 18, 2012 at 4:50 am #16233

Participant

Question,

I’m not trying to start a debate, but i’m curious because i’ve never heard the objection before and i’m unable to find a definitive answer anywhere.

I was always under the impression that from conception a zygote possesses the 7 biological requirements of life. Someone brought to me the objection that the zygote is not homeostatic. It seemed like an odd objection, but I am unable to give him a definitive definition that showed that even a zygote was homeostatic.

From what I understand of homeostasis (not much) a zygote would have to be homeostatic in order to keep it’s fluids from mixing with the mother’s fluids. His objection was that because a zygote cannot be "unplugged" from the mother and survive, it is not therefore homeostatic.

so my questions are

1. Is a zygote homeostatic from conception
2. If not when does it become homeostatic

Thank you for taking the time to help me with this question.

March 18, 2012 at 11:38 pm #110194

AstraSequi

Participant

By "homeostatic," do you mean "exhibits homeostasis"? If so, then yes. All living cells exhibit all 7 requirements – if not, then by definition they are not alive.

It’s not something that only occurs "from conception" though – conception is merely the time when the zygote is made. The individual sperm and egg also exhibit the 7 requirements, and are also alive (just like every cell in your body, which are dying and being replaced in massive numbers every second!) While cells may briefly stop exhibiting some characteristics and start again a little later, there is no point in the life cycle where you have a "non-living" cell become a living one.

If there’s anything I didn’t address or was unclear about, feel free to ask again. 🙂

March 19, 2012 at 1:10 am #110195

Graffight

Participant

I really appreciate your response, every definition that I’ve read regarding homeostasis seemed to point to it being something that all cells do, but the person i was talking to insisted that the zygote did not. Thank you again :o)

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