blastula

American  

[blas-chuh-luh] / ˈblæs tʃə lə /

noun

Embryology.

blastulas, plural blastulae plural

1. the early developmental stage of an animal, following the morula stage and consisting of a single, spherical layer of cells enclosing a hollow, central cavity.

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blastula British  

/ ˈblæstjʊlə /

noun

1. Also called: blastosphere.  an early form of an animal embryo that develops from a morula, consisting of a sphere of cells with a central cavity

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blastula Scientific  

/ blăs′chə-lə /

blastulas plural

1. An animal embryo at the stage immediately following the division of the fertilized egg cell, consisting of a ball-shaped layer of cells around a fluid-filled cavity known as a blastocoel.

2. Compare gastrula See also blastocyst

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blastula Cultural  

1. The stage of an embryo that consists of just over a hundred cells — a stage reached about one week after fertilization. At this stage the cells are just at the very beginning of cellular differentiation and are said to be totipotent (See totipotency).

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Discover More

This is the stage of development where embryonic stems cells can be harvested for medical research.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• blastulation
  noun
• blastular
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• blastulae
  plural
• blastulas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of blastula

1885–90; < New Latin < Greek blast ( ós ) bud, sprout + New Latin -ula -ule

Compare meaning

How does blastula compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• morula vs. blastula
• blastula vs. blastocyst
• blastula vs. gastrula

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

blastula blastulae blastulas

Here the cells in the blastula arrange themselves in two layers: the inner cell mass, and an outer layer called the trophoblast.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

The blastula, which in some species is a hollow ball of cells, undergoes a process called gastrulation, in which the three germ layers form.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022

Next, the blastula undergoes further cell division and cellular rearrangement during a process called gastrulation.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Further cleavage results in a hollow ball of cells called a blastula.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

What is called the "blastula" of the mammal and the real blastula of the amphioxus and many of the invertebrates are totally different embryonic structures.

From The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 by Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August

For Ptychodera, extensive EST data from egg, blastulae, gastrulae, larvae, juveniles, adult proboscis, stomochord, and gills defining 34,159 cDNA clones53, and 879,000 Roche/454 RNAseq reads from a mixed library of developmental stages54 were used.

From Nature ● Nov. 17, 2015

Near the end of my visit, our conversation turned from the theoretical consideration of morulas and blastulas to the specific realities of my own condition and treatment.

From Slate ● May 23, 2012

I picture the embryos themselves: round blastulas, with evenly divided cells.

From Slate ● May 23, 2012