The Tumor That Grows Teeth

Predict

Your body has many kinds of cells, like skin cells, bone cells and nerve cells. Some tumors grow in an ovary, the organ where eggs form. Could a tumor in an ovary grow a tooth?

Circle one. Yes / No

Why?

Watch

1. My ovary tumor grows teethyoutube.com/shorts/zf0GQxCVDcI

Word of the day

Teratoma (ter-uh-TOH-muh). A tumor made up of different types of tissue.

• Terabyte starts with tera-, from the same Greek word, téras. In units of measure, tera- means one trillion.
• Doctors use -oma in many tumor names, like melanoma and carcinoma.

Bonus word. Dermoid (DUR-moid). Derm- comes from the Greek word for skin, and -oid means like. Dermoid means skinlike. An asteroid is “starlike,” with the same -oid ending.

Questions

1. In the video, Raven calls sperm swimmers. She says sperm do two jobs. One job is adding the dad’s DNA. The other job is starting the egg dividing. A dermoid cyst starts when an egg cell, or a cell on its way to becoming an egg, starts dividing with no sperm. Which sperm job happens in a dermoid cyst, even with no sperm?

   Circle one. Adding the dad’s DNA / Starting the egg dividing

   Hint. Does a dermoid cyst have any DNA from a dad?

2. You started as one cell. That cell divided again and again, and the new cells turned into skin, bone, muscle and more. A dermoid cyst also starts as one cell, and it can grow skin, hair, fat and sometimes teeth. How can one starting cell make so many kinds of tissue?

   Hint. As one cell keeps dividing, do all the new cells stay the same? Or do some change into new kinds of cells?

3. In the video, Raven says that in some species, an egg that starts dividing on its own can grow into a baby. That doesn’t happen in mammals, like people and mice. Raven says dad’s DNA brings “the organization part.” Without dad’s DNA, the cells don’t organize into a body plan. A body plan is the layout of a body, like where the head, heart and legs go. Why does a human egg cell that starts dividing alone make a dermoid cyst instead of a baby?

   Hint. A dermoid cyst has no DNA from a dad. What does Raven say dad’s DNA brings?

4. In the video, Raven asks how close mammals are to a “virgin birth,” a baby with no dad. Scientists found a way around the need for dad’s DNA in mice. They made a live mouse named Kaguya from two eggs and no dad’s DNA. Kaguya and a dermoid cyst both have no dad’s DNA. Why did Kaguya grow into a whole mouse when a dermoid cyst grows into “body salad”?

   Hint. Kaguya came from a lab. What did the scientists find a way around?

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