Article ID: CBB557999585

Waddington’s Epigenetics or the Pictorial Meetings of Development and Genetics (2018)

unapi

In 1956, in his Principles of Embryology, Conrad Hal Waddington explained that the word “epigenetics” should be used to translate and update Wilhelm Roux’ German notion of “Entwicklungsmechanik” (1890) to qualify the studies focusing on the mechanisms of development. When Waddington mentioned it in 1956, the notion of epigenetics was not yet popular, as it would become from the 1980s. However, Waddington referred first to the notion in the late 1930s. While his late allusion clearly reveals that Waddington readily associated the notion of epigenetics with the developmental process, in the contemporary uses of the notion this developmental connotation seems to have disappeared. The advent and success of molecular biology have probably contributed to focusing biologists’ attention on the “genetic” or the “non-genetic” over the “developmental”. In the present paper, I first examine the links that exist, in Waddington’s work, between the classical notion of epigenesis in embryology and those of epigenetics that Waddington proposed to connect, and even synthesize, data both from embryology and genetics. Second, I show that Waddington’s own view of epigenetics has changed over time and I analyze how these changes appear through his many representations (both schematic or metaphorical images) of the relationships between genetic signals and developmental processes.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB557999585/

Similar Citations

Article Paternain Suberviola, José Luis; Cabré Bargalló, Maria; Montero i Simó, Miguel Ángel; Romeu Figuerola, Antoni; (2009)
Conrad Hal Waddington (1905--1975): el naixement de l'epigenètica (/isis/citation/CBB001021932/)

Article Antonine Nicoglou; Francesca Merlin; (2017)
Epigenetics: A way to bridge the gap between biological fields (/isis/citation/CBB128944502/)

Book Robert, Jason Scott; (2004)
Embryology, Epigenesis, and Evolution: Taking Development Seriously (/isis/citation/CBB000770170/)

Article Hall, Brian K.; (2008)
EvoDevo Concepts in the Work of Waddington (/isis/citation/CBB001230126/)

Book Susan Merrill Squier; (2017)
Epigenetic Landscapes: Drawings as Metaphor (/isis/citation/CBB524640115/)

Article Luca Chiapperino; Francesco Panese; (2021)
On the traces of the biosocial: Historicizing “plasticity” in contemporary epigenetics (/isis/citation/CBB820144208/)

Book Galperin, Charles; Gilbert, Scott F.; Hoppe, Brigitte; (1999)
Fundamental Changes in Cellular Biology in the 20th Century: Biology of Development, Chemistry and Physics in the Life Sciences (/isis/citation/CBB000700922/)

Article James W. E. Lowe; (2016)
Normal development and experimental embryology: Edmund Beecher Wilson and Amphioxus (/isis/citation/CBB114945953/)

Article Hopwood, Nick; (2005)
Visual Standards and Disciplinary Change: Normal Plates, Tables and Stages in Embryology (/isis/citation/CBB000773901/)

Article Gurdon, John B.; Hopwood, Nick; (2000)
The introduction of Xenopus laevis into developmental biology: Of empire, pregnancy testing and ribosomal genes (/isis/citation/CBB000101427/)

Article Amundson, Ron; (2000)
Embryology and Evolution, 1920-1960: Worlds Apart? (/isis/citation/CBB000770051/)

Article Brauckmann, Sabine; (2011)
Cultures of Seeing Embryos and Cells in 3-Dimensions and Flatness (/isis/citation/CBB001221524/)

Book Amundson, Ronald; (2005)
The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo (/isis/citation/CBB000550706/)

Article Antonine Nicoglou; Charles T. Wolfe; (2018)
Introduction: Sketches of a Conceptual History of Epigenesis (/isis/citation/CBB013586652/)

Article Pietro Giuffrida; Francesca Faillaci; Lucia Sideli; (2016)
Epigenesis as Key Concept for Understanding Functional and Disfunctional Reactions of Human Beings to Their Environment (/isis/citation/CBB066183793/)

Chapter Jablonka, Eva; (2011)
Cellular Epigenetic Inheritance in the Twenty-First Century (/isis/citation/CBB001500099/)

Authors & Contributors
Nicoglou, Antonine
Hopwood, Nick
Faillaci, Francesca
Lowe, James W. E.
Chiapperino, Luca
Giuffrida, Pietro
Concepts
Developmental biology
Embryology
Epigenetics
Biology
Genetics
Evolution
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
Germany
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment