Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution

Master Control Genes in Development and Evolution
Author: Walter J. Gehring
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780300074093

In this fascinating book, one of the world's most eminent developmental biologists discusses some of the exciting new insights into how genes control development. Walter Gehring describes in vivid detail his essential contributions to the landmark discovery of the homeobox, a characteristic DNA segment found in the genes of all higher organisms from the fruitfly to humans, and he explains how this has provided the key to our modern understanding of development and evolution. The book thus becomes not only a lucid discussion of genetics but also an engaging description of the art of scientific investigation. Gehring begins his story by looking at the work of the many researchers who laid the foundation for the fields of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, providing insightful vignettes of past and present investigators. He then describes his laboratory's hunt for the gene that caused odd mutations in the fruitfly--in which, for example, antennae on the head were transformed into legs. He explains that researchers eventually found that the same master control genes that dictate the body plan in flies also pattern human bodies, limbs, hands, heart, and brain. And he illustrates the universality of the genetic control of development by describing the development of the eye; eyes as different as those of humans, squids, and flies, he shows, develop under the same master control gene.

Ingenious Genes

Ingenious Genes
Author: Roger Sansom
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2011-09-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0262297264

A proposal for a new model of the evolution of gene regulation networks and development that draws on work from artificial intelligence and philosophy of mind. Each of us is a collection of more than ten trillion cells, busy performing tasks crucial to our continued existence. Gene regulation networks, consisting of a subset of genes called transcription factors, control cellular activity, producing the right gene activities for the many situations that the multiplicity of cells in our bodies face. Genes working together make up a truly ingenious system. In this book, Roger Sansom investigates how gene regulation works and how such a refined but simple system evolved. Sansom describes in detail two frameworks for understanding gene regulation. The first, developed by the theoretical biologist Stuart Kauffman, holds that gene regulation networks are fundamentally systems that repeat patterns of gene expression. Sansom finds Kauffman's framework an inadequate explanation for how cells overcome the difficulty of development. Sansom proposes an alternative: the connectionist framework. Drawing on work from artificial intelligence and philosophy of mind, he argues that the key lies in how multiple transcription factors combine to regulate a single gene, acting in a way that is qualitatively consistent. This allows the expression of genes to be finely tuned to the variable microenvironments of cells. Because of the nature of both development and its evolution, we can gain insight into the developmental process when we identify gene regulation networks as the controllers of development. The ingenuity of genes is explained by how gene regulation networks evolve to control development.

Forms of Becoming

Forms of Becoming
Author: Alessandro Minelli
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2009
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780691135687

What comes first, form or function? Evolutionary developmental biology (or "evo-devo") answers this fundamental question by showing how evolution controls the development of organisms. Alessandro Minelli takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at the history and key issues of evo-devo, focusing on the innovative ways animal organisms evolve through competition and cooperation. Minelli provides a complete overview of conceptual developments--from the fierce nineteenth-century debates between the French biologists Geoffroy and Cuvier, who fought over questions of form versus function--to modern theories of how genes dictate body formation. The book's wide-ranging topics include expression patterns of genes, developmental bias, the role of developmental genes, and genetic determinism. Drawing from diverse examples, such as the anatomy of butterflies, giraffes, Siamese twins, and corals, Minelli extends and reformulates important concepts from development, evolution, and the interplay between the two.

Coming To Life

Coming To Life
Author: Volhard Christiane Nusslein
Publisher: Kales Press
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2006-04-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780967007670

Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, winner of The Nobel Prize in Medicine, gives a concise and illustrative overview of genetics, evolution, and cellular processes as well as a discussing of current ethical issues in human biology. Coming to Life is a remarkable journey through developmental biology that reveals miraculous processes in the microscopic world of cells. Through an accounting of groundbreaking discoveries, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard tells us many answers to historical and contemporary questions in science. For example, she brings us the newest knowledge about embryonic forms, explains the genetic mechanisms that influence adult development of all animals, and shares insights into the ethical standards society moist uphold in the face of new scientific discoveries. As the author leads us from laboratory research to its applications in human beings, we also come to understand why children look like their parents, how an embryonic cell knows to become an eye rather than an eyelash, and other incredible influences hat result in variety in life. Complete with her own hand-drawn illustrations, Coming to Life gives a rare opportunity to understand a Nobel Prize-winner's passion for science in concise, understandable language. 55 b/w illustrations.

The Regulatory Genome

The Regulatory Genome
Author: Eric H. Davidson
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2010-07-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080455573

Gene regulatory networks are the most complex, extensive control systems found in nature. The interaction between biology and evolution has been the subject of great interest in recent years. The author, Eric Davidson, has been instrumental in elucidating this relationship. He is a world renowned scientist and a major contributor to the field of developmental biology. The Regulatory Genome beautifully explains the control of animal development in terms of structure/function relations of inherited regulatory DNA sequence, and the emergent properties of the gene regulatory networks composed of these sequences. New insights into the mechanisms of body plan evolution are derived from considerations of the consequences of change in developmental gene regulatory networks. Examples of crucial evidence underscore each major concept. The clear writing style explains regulatory causality without requiring a sophisticated background in descriptive developmental biology. This unique text supersedes anything currently available in the market. The only book in the market that is solely devoted to the genomic regulatory code for animal development Written at a conceptual level, including many novel synthetic concepts that ultimately simplify understanding Presents a comprehensive treatment of molecular control elements that determine the function of genes Provides a comparative treatment of development, based on principles rather than description of developmental processes Considers the evolutionary processes in terms of the structural properties of gene regulatory networks Includes 42 full-color descriptive figures and diagrams

From DNA to Diversity

From DNA to Diversity
Author: Sean B. Carroll
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2004-10-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1405119500

In this landmark work, the author team led by Dr. Sean Carroll presents the general principles of the genetic basis of morphological change through a synthesis of evolutionary biology with genetics and embryology. In this extensively revised second edition, the authors delve into the latest discoveries, incorporating new coverage of comparative genomics, molecular evolution of regulatory proteins and elements, and microevolution of animal development. An accessible text, focusing on the most well-known genes, developmental processes and taxa. Builds logically from developmental genetics and regulatory mechanisms to evolution at different genetic morphological levels. Adds major insights from recent genome studies, new evo-devo biology research findings, and a new chapter on models of variation and divergence among closely related species. Provides in-depth focus on key concepts through well-developed case studies. Features clear, 4-color illustrations and photographs, chapter summaries, references and a glossary. Presents the research of Dr. Carroll, a pioneer in the field and the past president of the Society for Developmental Biology. An Instructor manual CD-ROM for this title is available. Please contact our Higher Education team at [email protected] for more information.

Drosophila Eye Development

Drosophila Eye Development
Author: Kevin Moses
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2002-03-12
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9783540425908

1 Kevin Moses It is now 25 years since the study of the development of the compound eye in Drosophila really began with a classic paper (Ready et al. 1976). In 1864, August Weismann published a monograph on the development of Diptera and included some beautiful drawings of the developing imaginal discs (Weismann 1864). One of these is the first description of the third instar eye disc in which Weismann drew a vertical line separating a posterior domain that included a regular pattern of clustered cells from an anterior domain without such a pattern. Weismann suggested that these clusters were the precursors of the adult ommatidia and that the line marks the anterior edge of the eye. In his first suggestion he was absolutely correct - in his second he was wrong. The vertical line shown was not the anterior edge of the eye, but the anterior edge of a moving wave of patterning and cell type specification that 112 years later (1976) Ready, Hansen and Benzer would name the "morphogenetic furrow". While it is too late to hear from August Weismann, it is a particular pleasure to be able to include a chapter in this Volume from the first author of that 1976 paper: Don Ready! These past 25 years have seen an astonishing explosion in the study of the fly eye (see Fig.

The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution

The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution
Author: Peter J. Beurton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2000-05-29
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521771870

Advances in molecular biological research in the latter half of the twentieth century have made the story of the gene vastly complicated: the more we learn about genes, the less sure we are of what a gene really is. Knowledge about the structure and functioning of genes abounds, but the gene has also become curiously intangible. This collection of essays renews the question: what are genes? Philosophers, historians and working scientists re-evaluate the question in this volume, treating the gene as a focal point of interdisciplinary and international research. It will be of interest to professionals and students in the philosophy and history of science, genetics and molecular biology.

Genes, Development and Cancer

Genes, Development and Cancer
Author: Howard D. Lipshitz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1441989811

- For the first time, Nobel Prize winner, Edward B. Lewis' research papers are published within one volume - Papers are organized into sections that reflect the focus of the research - Commentaries by Howard Lipshitz highlight key methods and results by explaining the science so it is accessible to upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and professional researchers

Oversight and Review of Clinical Gene Transfer Protocols

Oversight and Review of Clinical Gene Transfer Protocols
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 78
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 030929665X

Gene transfer research is a rapidly advancing field that involves the introduction of a genetic sequence into a human subject for research or diagnostic purposes. Clinical gene transfer trials are subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at the federal level and to oversight by institutional review boards (IRBs) and institutional biosafety committees (IBCs) at the local level before human subjects can be enrolled. In addition, at present all researchers and institutions funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are required by NIH guidelines to submit human gene transfer protocols for advisory review by the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC). Some protocols are then selected for individual review and public discussion. Oversight and Review of Clinical Gene Transfer Protocols provides an assessment of the state of existing gene transfer science and the current regulatory and policy context under which research is investigated. This report assesses whether the current oversight of individual gene transfer protocols by the RAC continues to be necessary and offers recommendations concerning the criteria the NIH should employ to determine whether individual protocols should receive public review. The focus of this report is on the standards the RAC and NIH should use in exercising its oversight function. Oversight and Review of Clinical Gene Transfer Protocols will assist not only the RAC, but also research institutions and the general public with respect to utilizing and improving existing oversight processes.