Epigenesis (biology)

In biology, epigenesis has at least two distinct meanings:
* the unfolding development in an organism, and in particular the development of a plant or animal from an egg or spore through a sequence of steps in which cells differentiate and organs form;
* the theory that plants and animals develop in this way, in contrast to theories of preformation.

The originator of this theory of epigenesis was Aristotle in his book "On the Generation of Animals." Though the theory seems an obvious fact to us in today's genetic age, however, the theory was not given much credence in former times because of the dominance for many centuries of Creationist theories of life's origins. [http://books.google.com/books?id=IUfAsFSPf6oC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=spallanzani+epigenesis&source=web&ots=yRuS8F4bjQ&sig=kqF-9nu4yL1DPAqB9wLmVf3n-UI#PPP1,M1 Marianne Henn & Holger A. Pausch, "Body Dialectics in the Age of Goethe," 2003, pp.169-175] However, during the late 18th century an extended and controversial debate by biologists finally led epigenesis to eclipse the long-established preformationist view. [http://www.springerlink.com/index/Q3T8577K012T4281.pdfAl Baxter, "Edmund B. Wilson as a preformationist: Some reasons for his acceptance of the chromosome theory," Journal of the History of Biology, 9,1, March, 1976, pp.29-57] [http://www.spallanzani.it/paginanews.asp?id=17 "Spallanzani in New York, Spallanzani's Biological Contributions 200 Years After His Death," Columbia University, New York, October 29th, 1999] The embryologist, Caspar Friedrich Wolff, famously refuted preformationism in 1795 in favor of epigenesis, though this did not sound the death knell of preformationist ideology. [http://books.google.com/books?id=-ddVamDO-xcC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=epigenesis+controversy&source=web&ots=MqfgfvWLrA&sig=iiQYbdCyxLJOBGC-ou6O5x0hlrQ Ernst Mayr, "This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World," p.11]

Vestiges of the issue still persist, which has been succinctly summarized as follows: "where preformation stated that the germ cells of each organism contain preformed miniature adults that unfold during development, epigenesis held that the embryo forms by successive gradual exchanges in an amorphous zygote. Although both traditions tried to explain developmental organization, religious and metaphysical arguments on the conception of embryonic matter as either active or passive determined the scope of their respective explanations. It is shown that these very arguments still underlie the use of gene-centric metaphors in the molecular revolution of the 20th century." [http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/981/1/7 Linda Van Speybroeck, Dani De Waele and Gertrudis Van De Vijver, "Theories in Early Embryology: Close Connections between Epigenesis, Preformationism, and Self-Organization," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 981:7-49, 2002]

References

ee also

* Epigenetics

External links

* [http://www.ivcc.edu/GEN2002/Aristotle_Generation.htm Aristotle: "On the Generation of Animals" (extracts)]
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