Developmental biology is seemingly well understood, with development widely accepted as being a series of programmed changes through which an egg turns into an adult organism, or a seed matures into a plant. However, the picture is much more complex than that: is it all genetically controlled or does environment have an influence? Is the final adult stage the target of development and everything else just a build-up to that point? Are developmental strategies the same in plants as in animals? How do we consider development in single-celled organisms? In this concise, engaging volume, Alessandro Minelli, a leading developmental biologist, addresses these key questions. Using familiar examples and easy-to-follow arguments, he offers fresh alternatives to a number of preconceptions and stereotypes, awakening the reader to the disparity of developmental phenomena across all main branches of the tree of life.
Author(s): Alessandro Minelli
Series: Understanding Life
Edition: 1
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Commentary: HDSS
Pages: 192
Tags: Life Sciences, Evolutionary Biology, Philosophy of Science, Cell Biology and Developmental Biology, Philosophy
Title
Copyright
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 - Defining Development, if Possible
2 - Cells and Development
3 - Development as the History of the Individual
4 - Revisiting the Embryo
5 - Developmental Sequences: Sustainability versus Adaptation
6 - Genes and Development
7 - Emerging Form
8 - The Ecology of Development
Concluding Remarks
Summary of Common Misunderstandings
Classification
References and Further Reading
Index