Question

Assume you found a new worm species while working at Friday Harbor Marine Lab last summer. It has some cells at the vegetal pole that form right after cleavage, then move into the embryo. If you cut off the cells, the animals that developed were sterile. Using your knowledge gained from lecture, what can you tell me about what these cells might be doing? What experiments might you do to test your hypothesis?

What are enhancers? How do they function to promote gene expression, especially since they may be some distance from the transcribed gene?? Do enhancers interact with promoters and basal transcription factors?