Coenocyte

In the siphonous green algae Bryopsidales and some Dasycladales, the entire thallus is a single multinucleate cell, which can be many meters across (e.g.

The green algal order Cladophorales is characterized by siphonocladous organization, i.e., the thalli are composed of many coenocytic cells.

Many insects, such as the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, lay eggs that initially develop as "syncytial" blastoderms, i.e. early on the embryos exhibit incomplete cell division.

The egg cell cytoplasm contains localized mRNA molecules such as those that encode the transcription factors Bicoid and Nanos.

The position of the nuclei along the embryonic axes determines the relative exposure of different amounts of Bicoid, Nanos, and other morphogens.

Nuclei exposed to more Nanos will activate genes responsible for differentiation of posterior regions, such as the abdomen and germ cells.

Certain mutations and the activation of certain cell-cycle control genes can lead to bacteria forming "filament-like" cells with multiple chromosomes but without cellular division.

[citation needed] As with much international scientific vocabulary, English got the word coenocyte (cœnocyte) from Neo-Latin, in which its combining forms, coeno- + -cyte, are based on ancient Greek: κοινός (koinós) = "common" + κύτος (kýtos) = "box, i.e. cell").