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DEVBIO Introduction - Lecture Notes

Developmental biology is the study of embryonic and developmental processes, including how a single fertilized egg cell divides and activates genes to produce a complex multicellular organism. Aristotle was an early embryologist who observed chick development, seeing a thin band of cells give rise to an entire bird. Key processes in development include cell differentiation, axis determination, and morphogenesis, whereby cells organize into tissues and structures. Comparative embryology studies anatomical changes during development in different organisms and how this informs evolution, while evolutionary embryology examines how development constrains evolutionary changes.

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9 views

DEVBIO Introduction - Lecture Notes

Developmental biology is the study of embryonic and developmental processes, including how a single fertilized egg cell divides and activates genes to produce a complex multicellular organism. Aristotle was an early embryologist who observed chick development, seeing a thin band of cells give rise to an entire bird. Key processes in development include cell differentiation, axis determination, and morphogenesis, whereby cells organize into tissues and structures. Comparative embryology studies anatomical changes during development in different organisms and how this informs evolution, while evolutionary embryology examines how development constrains evolutionary changes.

Uploaded by

Ayako Hayashida
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ARISTOTLE

• the first embryologist known to history

• science begins with wonder

"It is owing to wonder that people began to philosophize, and wonder remains the beginning of
knowledge."

ARISTOTLE’S EXPERIMENT

• cracking open a chick egg on each successive day of its 3-week incubation

• a thin band of cells is seen to give rise to an entire bird

ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT

• The development of a multicellular organism begins with a single cell the fertilized egg, or zygote

• Embryology

“between fertilization and birth”

EMBRYOLOGY TO DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

• developmental biology

• the discipline that studies embryonic and other developmental processes.

• Major Objectives

• generates cellular diversity and order

• ensures the continuity of life

Developmental Biology is the study of a PROCESS whereby a single cell (the fertilized egg) divides and
selectively activates the expression of genes to produce a complex organism composed of many cell
types.

Ex ovo omnia!

What kinds of questions are developmental biologists asking?

 HOW DOES THE FERTILIZED EGG GIVE RISE TO THE ADULT BODY?
 HOW DOES THAT ADULT BODY PRODUCE YET ANOTHER BODY?

ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT

 How does the same genetic information result in different types of cells?
 How is cell division regulated?
 How do cells form ordered structures?
 How are reproductive cells set apart?
 How do changes in development create new body forms and what changes are possible?
What kinds of PROCESSES are required?

To form an embryo, the following (and more!) must occur:

• Gametes form and fuse (Reproduction)

• Cells multiply (Growth)

• Generation of Asymmetry

• Axis Determination (Positional information)

- Anterior/Posterior (Head-Tail)

- Dorsal/Ventral (Back-Front)

- Left/Right

• Cells differentiate

• Structures are built from cells (Morphogenesis)

- Animal cells organize into sheets and move

- Plant cells form structures without moving

Differentiation is a central idea of development:

All cells have the same DNA, but DIFFERENT CELLS express DIFFERENT GENES

Nature supports an incredible diversity of plant and animal body plans.

Yet all of these organisms share conserved developmental mechanisms that are evidence of their
evolution from a common ancestor.

Our challenge is to understand both this diversity and this unity.

WAYS TO STUDY EMBRYOLOGY

• Anatomical Approaches

• Experimental Approaches

• Genetic Approaches

ANATOMICAL APPROACHES

• How do each of these contribute to the study of development?

• comparative embryology

• the study of how anatomy changes during the development of different organisms.

• evolutionary embryology
• the study of how changes in development may cause evolutionary changes and of how
an organism's ancestry may constrain the types of changes that are possible.

• Teratology

• the study of birth defects

• mathematical modeling

• seeks to describe developmental phenomena in terms of equations

COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGY

•Epigenesis versus preformation

 How does the concept of germ layers support epigenesis?


 How does the concept of induction fit in here?
 What principles did von Baer articulate with respect to vertebrate development?

COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGY

• General features of large group of animals appear earlier than specialized features of smaller group

• Less general characteristics develop from more general

• A particular type of embryo, instead of passing through adult stages of a lower form, departs more and
more from it.

• Embryo of higher animal is only like early embryo of lower animal.

 How have fate maps contributed to our understanding of development?

EVOLUTIONARY EMBRYOLOGY

• How have observations of embryos contributed to our understanding of evolutionary relationships?

• Why is the distinction between analogous and homologous structures important?

TERATOLOGY

• How are malformations different from disruptions?


MATHEMATICAL MODELING

• What’s the difference between isometric and allometric growth?

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