Abstract
No comprehensive theory of development is available yet. Traditionally, we regard the development of animals as a sequence of changes through which an adult multicellular animal is produced, starting from a single cell which is usually a fertilized egg, through increasingly complex stages. However, many phenomena that would not qualify as developmental according to these criteria would nevertheless qualify as developmental in that they imply nontrivial (e.g., non degenerative) changes of form, and/or substantial changes in gene expression. A broad, comparative approach is badly needed. In the Cnidaria, for example, even the boundary between generations is problematic. Describing their life cycle in terms of metagenesis (alternation between polyp generation and medusa generation) or in terms of metamorphosis (polyp as larva or juvenile) are matters of semantics more than biology. The life cycle of other metazoans, described in textbooks in terms of larva-to-adult metamorphosis, is hardly different from a typical metagenetic life cycle of cnidarians. This applies to holometabolous insects and to marine invertebrates like sea urchins, where most of the larval cells are discarded at metamorphosis. The uncertain temporal and spatial boundaries of individual development are also shown by the widespread lack of a strict correspondence between adult and mature. A comprehensive theory of development should start with a zero principle of “developmental inertia,” corresponding to an indeterminate local self-perpetuation of cell-level dynamics. Indeterminate growth, scale-invariance, segmentation, and regeneration provide examples of developmental dynamics close to that.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alberch P (1991) From genes to phenotype: dynamical systems and evolvability. Genetica 84:5–11
Bely AE (2010) Evolutionary loss of animal regeneration: pattern and process. Integr Comp Biol 50:515–527
Birnbaum KD, Sánchez Alvarado A (2008) Slicing across kingdoms: regeneration in plants and animals. Cell 132:697–710
Bouillon J, Gravili C, Pagès F, Gili JM, Boero F (2006) An introduction to Hydrozoa. Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, vol 194. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Boyden A, Shelswell EM (1959) Prophylogeny: some considerations regarding primitive evolution in lower Metazoa. Acta Biotheor 13:115–130
Brien P (1973) Les démosponges. Morphologie et reproduction. In: Grassé PP (ed) Traité de Zoologie, vol 3(1). Masson, Paris, pp 133–461
Brown FD, Tiozzo S, Roux MM, Ishizuka K, Swalla BJ, De Tomaso AW (2009) Early lineage specification of long-lived germline precursors in the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri. Development 136:3485–3494
Callebaut W, Rasskin-Gutman D (2005) Modularity: understanding the development and evolution of natural complex systems. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Cardona A, Hartenstein V, Romero R (2005) The embryonic development of the triclad Schmidtea polychroa. Dev Genes Evol 215:109–131
Carter CA, Wourms JP (1993) Naturally occurring diblastodermic eggs in the annual fish Cynolebias: implications for developmental regulation and determination. J Morphol 215:301–312
Chagas A Jr, Edgecombe GD, Minelli A (2008) Variability in trunk segmentation in the centipede order Scolopendromorpha: a remarkable new species of Scolopendropsis Brandt (Chilopoda: Scolopendridae) from Brazil. Zootaxa 1888:36–46
Dawydoff C (1928) Traité d’embryologie comparée des invertébrés. Masson, Paris
Dupré J (2010) The polygenomic organism. Sociol Rev 58(s1):19–31
Eaves AA, Palmer AR (2003) Widespread cloning in echinoderm larvae. Nature 425:146
Egger B, Ladurner P, Nimeth K, Gschwentner R, Rieger R (2006) The regeneration capacity of the flatworm Macrostomum lignano—on repeated regeneration, rejuvenation, and the minimal size needed for regeneration. Dev Genes Evol 216:565–577
Ellis CH, Fausto-Sterling A (1997) Platyhelminths, the flatworms. In: Gilbert SF, Raunio AM (eds) Embryology: constructing the organism. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, pp 115–130
Extavour CGM (2008) Urbisexuality: The evolution of bilaterian germ cell specification and reproductive systems. In: Minelli A, Fusco G (eds) Evolving pathways: key themes in evolutionary developmental biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 321–342
Extavour CG, Akam M (2003) Mechanisms of germ cell specification across the metazoans: epigenesis and preformation. Development 130:5869–5884
Fairclough SR, Dayel MJ, King N (2010) Multicellular development in a choanoflagellate. Curr Biol 20:R875–R876
Foe VE (1989) Mitotic domains reveal early commitment of cells in Drosophila embryos. Development 107:1–22
Folse HJ, Roughgarden J (2010) What is an individual organism? A multilevel selection perspective. Q Rev Biol 85:447–472
Franc A (1993) Classe des Scyphozoaires. In: Grassé PP (ed) Traité de zoologie, vol 3(2). Masson, Paris, pp 597–884
Fryer G (1961) The developmental history of Mutela bourguignati (Ancey) Bourguignat (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 244:259–298
Fusco G (2005) Trunk segment numbers and sequential segmentation in myriapods. Evol Dev 7:608–617
Fusco G, Minelli A (2010) From polyphenism to complex metazoan life cycles. Philos Trans R Soc B 365:545–690
Galaktionov KV, Dobrovolskij AA (2003) The biology and evolution of trematodes. An essay on the biology, morphology, life cycles, and evolution of digenetic trematodes. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht
Garcia-Bellido A, Ripoll P, Morata G (1973) Developmental compartmentalisation of the wing disc of Drosophila. Nat New Biol 245:251–253
García-Ruiz JM, Checa A, Rivas A (1990) On the origin of ammonite sutures. Paleobiology 16:349–354
Gayon J (1992) Darwin et l’après-Darwin: une histoire de l’hypothèse de sélection naturelle. Kimé, Paris
Gayon J (1998) Darwinism’s struggle for survival. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Gerhart JC, Kirschner MW (1997) Cells, embryos and evolution. Blackwell Science, Boston
Glenner H, Høeg JT (1995) A new motile, multicellulars stage involved in host invasion by parasitic barnacles (Rhizocephala). Nature 377:147–150
Glenny RW, Robertson HT (1990) Fractal properties of pulmonary blood flow: characterization of spatial heterogeneity. J Appl Physiol 69:532–545
Grosberg RK, Strathmann RR (1998) One cell, two cell, red cell, blue cell: the persistence of a unicellular stage in multicellular life histories. Trends Ecol Evol 13:112–116
Guthrie S, Prince V, Lumsden A (1993) Selective dispersal of avian rhombomere cells in orthotopic and heterotopic grafts. Development 118:527–538
Hall BK (1998) Germ layers and the germ-layer theory revisited: primary and secondary germ layers, neural crest as a fourth germ layer, homology, demise of the germ-layer theory. Evol Biol 30:121–186
Hall BK (1999) The neural crest in development and evolution. Springer, New York
Hallez P (1887) Embryogénie des dendrocoeles d’eau douce. Baillière, Paris
Hobbs HH Jr (1981) The crayfishes of Georgia. Smithson Contrib Zool 318:1–549
Jacobs DK, Hughes NC, Fitz-Gibbon ST, Winchell CJ (2005) Terminal addition, the Cambrian radiation and the Phanerozoic evolution of bilaterian form. Evol Dev 7:498–514
Janssen R, Prpic NM, Damen WGM (2004) Gene expression suggests decoupled dorsal and ventral segmentation in the millipede Glomeris marginata (Myriapoda: Diplopoda). Dev Biol 268:89–104
Karkach AS (2006) Trajectories and models of individual growth. Demogr Res 15:347–400
Keller EF (2000) The century of the gene. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Kupiec J-J (2009) The origins of individuals. World Scientific, Singapore
Laplane L (2011) Stem cells and the temporal boundaries of development: toward a species-dependent view. Biol Theory 6. doi:10.1007/s13752-011-0009-z
Lauzon RJ, Ishizuka KJ, Weissman IL (2002) Cyclical generation and degeneration of organs in a colonial urochordate involves crosstalk between old and new: a model for development and regeneration. Dev Biol 249:333–348
Littlewood DTJ, Rohde K, Clough KA (1999) The interrelationships of all major groups of Platyhelminthes: phylogenetic evidence from morphology and molecules. Biol J Linn Soc 66:75–114
Long CA (2005) Intricate sutures as fractal curves. J Morphol 185:285–295
Loughry WJ, Prodohl PA, McDonough CM, Avise JC (1998) Polyembryony in armadillos. Am Sci 86:274–279
Manni L, Burighel P (2006) Common and divergent pathways in alternative developmental processes of ascidians. BioEssays 28:902–912
McShea DW, Brandon RN (2010) Biology’s first law: the tendency for diversity and complexity to increase in evolutionary systems. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Metzger RJ, Klein OD, Martin GR, Krasnow MA (2008) The branching programme of mouse lung development. Nature 453:745–750
Michalik P, Uhl G (2005) The male genital system of the cellar spider Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin, 1775) (Pholcidae, Araneae): development of spermatozoa and seminal secretion. Front Zool 2:12
Minelli A (2000) Holomeric vs. meromeric segmentation: a tale of centipedes, leeches, and rhombomeres. Evol Dev 2:35–48
Minelli A (2001) A three-phase model of arthropod segmentation. Dev Genes Evol 211:509–521
Minelli A (2003) The development of animal form. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Minelli A (2009a) Perspectives in animal phylogeny and evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Minelli A (2009b) Forms of becoming. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Minelli A (2011) A principle of developmental inertia. In: Hallgrímsson B, Hall BK (eds) Epigenetics: linking genotype and phenotype in development and evolution. University of California Press, San Francisco, pp 116–133
Minelli A, Bortoletto S (1988) Myriapod metamerism and arthropod segmentation. Biol J Linn Soc 33:323–343
Minelli A, Fusco G (2004) Evo–devo perspectives on segmentation: model organisms, and beyond. Trends Ecol Evol 19:423–429
Minelli A, Chagas A Jr, Edgecombe GD (2009) Saltational evolution of trunk segment number in centipedes. Evol Dev 11:318–322
Nijhout HF (1990) Metaphors and the role of genes in development. BioEssays 12:441–446
Nikolei E (1961) Vergleichende Untersuchungen zur Fortpflanzung der heterogenen Gallmücken unter experimentellen Bedingungen. Z Morphol Okol Tiere 50:281–329
Pandian TJ (1994) Arthropoda-Crustacea. In: Adiyodi KG, Adiyodi RG (eds) Reproductive biology of invertebrates, VI(B) Asexual propagation and reproductive strategies. Wiley, Chichester, pp 39–166
Peterson KJ, Cameron RA, Davidson EH (1997) Set-aside cells in maximal indirect development: evolutionary and developmental significance. BioEssays 19:623–631
Pigliucci M (2001) Phenotypic plasticity: beyond nature and nurture. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Pigliucci M, Müller GB (eds) (2010) Evolution: the extended synthesis. MIT Press, Cambridge
Pollock DA, Normark BB (2002) The life cycle of Micromalthus debilis LeConte (1878) (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Micromalthidae): historical review and evolutionary perspective. J Zool Syst Evol Res 40:105–112
Pradeu T (2010) What is an organism? An immunological answer. Hist Philos Life Sci 32:247–268
Sahli F (1990) On post-adult moults in Julida (Myriapoda, Diplopoda). Why do periodomorphosis and intercalaries occur in males? In: Minelli A (ed) Proceedings of the 7th international congress of myriapodology. Brill, Leiden, pp 135–156
Samakovlis C, Hacohen N, Manning G, Sutherland DC, Guillemin K, Krasnow MA (1996) Development of the Drosophila tracheal system occurs by a series of morphologically distinct but genetically coupled branching events. Development 122:1395–1407
Santelices B (1999) How many kinds of individual are there? Trends Ecol Evol 14:152–155
Schlosser G (2002) Modularity and the units of evolution. Theory Biosci 121:1–80
Schlosser G, Wagner GP (eds) (2004) Modularity in development and evolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Sebens KP (1987) The ecology of indeterminate growth in animals. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 18:371–407
Song JL, Wong JL, Wessel GM (2006) Oogenesis: single cell development and differentiation. Dev Biol 300:385–405
Soto AM, Sonnenschein C (2004) The somatic mutation theory of cancer: growing problems with the paradigm? BioEssays 26:1097–1107
Steenstrup JJS (1845) On the alternation of generation or the propagation and development of animals through alternate generations. Ray Society, London
Surhone LM, Timpledon MT, Marseken SF (2010) Paedogenesis. VDM, Saarbrücken
Tattersall WM, Sheppard EM (1934) Observations on the bipinnaria of the asteroid genus Luidia. In: Daniel RJ (ed) James Johnstone memorial volume. University Press of Liverpool, Liverpool, pp 35–61
Verhoeff KW (1923) Periodomorphose. Zool Anz 56(233–238):241–254
Vervoort M (2011) Regeneration and development in animals. Biol Theory 6. doi:10.1007/s13752-011-0005-3
West-Eberhard MJ (2003) Developmental plasticity and evolution. Oxford University Press, New York
Williamson DJ (2006) Hybridization in the evolution of animal form and life-cycle. Biol J Linn Soc 148:585–602
Wolpert L, Jessell T, Lawrence P, Meyerowitz E, Robertson E, Smith J (2007) Principles of development. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Wyatt IJ (1961) Pupal paedogenesis in the Cecidomyidae (Diptera) I. Proc R Entomol Soc Lond A 36:133–143
Wyatt IJ (1964) Immature stages of Lestremiinae (Diptera: Cecidomyidae) infesting cultivated mushrooms. Trans R Entomol Soc Lond 116:15–27
Zamir M (2001) Fractal dimensions and multifractility in vascular branching. J Theor Biol 212:183–190
Zattara EE, Bely AE (2011) Evolution of a novel developmental trajectory: fission is distinct from regeneration in the annelid Pristina leidyi. Evol Dev 13:80–95
Zhurov V, Terzin T, Grbić M (2007) (In)discrete charm of the polyembryony: evolution of embryo cloning. Cell Mol Life Sci 64:2790–2798
Acknowledgments
My sincere thanks to Thomas Pradeu for inviting me to contribute to this Thematic Section. To Thomas, as well as to Lucie Laplane and Antonine Nicoglou, I am much indebted for insightful comments on an earlier version of this article. Jean-Jacques Kupiec has kindly shared with me his views on inertial systems.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Minelli, A. Animal Development, an Open-Ended Segment of Life. Biol Theory 6, 4–15 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-011-0002-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-011-0002-6