stageshormone
Stageshormone is a neologism used in theoretical discussions of developmental biology to denote signaling molecules proposed to regulate the timing and progression of discrete developmental stages. Unlike classical hormones defined by a single tissue source and long-range action, stageshormones are envisioned as temporally gated signals that help coordinate transitions such as juvenile to adult stages, metamorphosis, or flowering in plants. The term is not widely adopted in mainstream endocrinology and there is no formal consensus on its definition or constituents.
In proposed models, stageshormones would operate in conjunction with stage-specific transcriptional regulators and environmental cues. They
Applications and context: the concept appears primarily in speculative literature, systems biology models, and some synthetic
Research status: as of now, stageshormone remains conceptual rather than a defined class of molecules with