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Biological Development and Evolution, Complexity and Self-organization in

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Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

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Definition of the Subject

Much work over the past half‐century in developmental and evolutionary biology has focused on a subset of an organism's components, itsgenes . The hierarchical regulatory relationships among genes have been a major emphasis in studies indevelopment, while the variation of genes has played a corresponding role in evolutionary studies. In the past decade, however, investigators haveincreasingly considered the part played by physical and dynamical properties of cells and tissues, and their molecular components, in producing biologicalcharacteristics over the course of ontogeny and phylogeny. Living cells and tissues encompass numerous interpenetrating multicomponent systems in whichdynamical interactions among intracellular gene products, metabolites, ions, etc., and interactions between cells, directly via theiradhesive surfaces, or indirectly via secreted extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules or diffusible signaling...

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Abbreviations

Differential adhesion:

The capacity of cells to adhere to each other in a cell type‐dependent manner. The strength of adhesion between two cells of type A typically differs from that between cells of type B. This may be due to differences either in the number or type of cell adhesion molecules.

Differential gene expression:

The main regulatory basis of cell differentiation . Cells of different type in a given organism carry the same set of genes (the genome) but vary in which of these genes are active, that is, expressed.

Biochemical oscillation:

The variation in the concentration of a given molecule in principle either in space or time, although typically the term is reserved for the latter.

Reaction-diffusion mechanism:

A  conceptual framework for describing spatiotemporal pattern formation in a system of several interacting and diffusing chemical species.

Canalization:

An evolved property of developmental pathways that permits the robust generation of a phenotype in the face of perturbations. The perturbations can be those internal to the organism, in the form of gene mutation or developmental noise, or external to it, in the form of environmental variability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York Medical College, Valhalla, USA

    Stuart A. Newman

  2. University of Missouri, Columbia, USA

    Gabor Forgacs

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  1. Stuart A. Newman
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  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, 122 Escalle Lane, Larkspur, CA, 94939, USA

    Robert A. Meyers Ph. D. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

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Newman, S.A., Forgacs, G. (2009). Biological Development and Evolution, Complexity and Self-organization in. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_35

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