What is "yolk"

Yolk \Yolk\ (y[=o]lk or y[=o]k; 277), n. [OE. yolke, yelke, [yogh]olke, [yogh]elke, AS. geoloca, geoleca, fr. geolu yellow. See Yellow.] [Written also yelk.]

1. The yellow part of an egg; the vitellus.

2. (Zo["o]l.) An oily secretion which naturally covers the wool of sheep.

   Yolk cord (Zo["o]l.), a slender cord or duct which connects the yolk glands with the egg chambers in certain insects, as in the aphids.

   Yolk gland (Zo["o]l.), a special organ which secretes the yolk of the eggs in many turbellarians, and in some other invertebrates. See Illust. of Hermaphrodite in Appendix.

   Yolk sack (Anat.), the umbilical vesicle. See under Unbilical.

Old English geolca, geoloca "yolk," literally "the yellow part," from geolu "yellow" (see yellow (adj.)). Formerly also spelled yelk.

n. 1 The yellow, spherical part of an egg that is surrounded by the white albumen, and serves as nutriment for the growing young. 2 The grease in a sheep's fleece.

n. nutritive material of an ovum stored for the nutrition of an embryo (especially the yellow mass of a bird or reptile egg) [syn: vitellus]

The yolk in an egg is material of which the primary function is to supply food for the development of the animal embryo. Some kinds of eggs contain no yolk, for example because they are laid in situations where the food supply is adequate (such as in the body of the host of a parasitoid) or because the embryo develops in the parent's body, which supplies the food, sometimes through a placenta. Reproductive systems in which the mother's body supplies the embryo directly are said to be matrotrophic; those in which the embryo is supplied by yolk are said to be lecithotrophic. In many species, such as all birds, and most reptiles and insects, the yolk takes the form of a special storage organ constructed in the reproductive tract of the mother. In many other animals, especially very small species such as some fishes and invertebrates, the yolk material is not in a special organ,but inside the ovum.

Yolks, being mainly stored food, tend to be very concentrated, and in particular tend to be rich in nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, lipids and proteins. The proteins function partly as food in their own right, and partly in controlling the storage and supply of the other nutrients. For example, in some species the amount of yolk in an egg cell affects the developmental processes that follow fertilization. Yolk is not living cell material like protoplasm, but largely passive material, that is to say deutoplasm, in this case functioning mainly as food for the embryo. The food material, plus associated control structures, is supplied by the maternal body during the process called oogenesis. Some of the material is stored more or less in the form in which the maternal body supplied it, partly as processed by dedicated non-germ tissues in the egg, while part of the biosynthetic processing into its final form happens in the oocyte itself.

Apart from animals, other organisms, like algae, specially in the oogamous, can also accumulate resources in their female gametes. In gymnosperms, the remains of the female gametophyte serve also as food supply, and in flowering plants, the endosperm.