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PubMed2003

Learning developmental biology has priority in the life sciences curriculum in Singapore.

Singapore has embraced the life sciences as an important discipline to be emphasized in schools and universities. This is part of the nation's strategic move towards a knowledge-based economy, with the life sciences poised as a new engine for economic growth. In the life sciences, the area of developmental biology is of prime interest, since it is not just intriguing for students to know how a single cell can give rise to a complex, coordinated, functional life that is multicellular and multifaceted, but more importantly, there is much in developmental biology that can have biomedical implications. At different levels in the Singapore educational system, students are exposed to various aspects of developmental biology. The author has given many guest lectures to secondary (ages 12-16) and high school (ages 17-18) students to enthuse them about topics such as embryo cloning and stem cell biology. At the university level, some selected topics in developmental biology are part of a broader course which caters for students not majoring in the life sciences, so that they will learn to comprehend how development takes place and the significance of the knowledge and impacts of the technologies derived in the field. For students majoring in the life sciences, the subject is taught progressively in years two and three, so that students will gain specialist knowledge in developmental biology. As they learn, students are exposed to concepts, principles and mechanisms that underlie development. Different model organisms are studied to demonstrate the rapid advances in this field and to show the interconnectivity of developmental themes among living things. The course inevitably touches on life and death matters, and the social and ethical implications of recent technologies which enable scientists to manipulate life are discussed accordingly, either in class, in a discussion forum, or through essay writing.

Curriculum↗
PubMed2005

Boris Balinsky: transition from embryology to developmental biology.

This is the story of a textbook that students of developmental biology have used for 45 years. "An Introduction to Embryology" was released soon after a role for genes in the control of development became finally recognized but not yet well documented. Thus this book manifested the transition from embryology to developmental biology. The story of its author, Boris Balinsky, who against all odds survived to write this book, is remarkable on its own. He started his scientific career in the USSR, but due to 20th century social and political upheavals, ended it in South Africa. This article will shed light on the life of Boris Balinsky, a scientist and writer and will explore the origins of his book.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Historical perspectives on plant developmental biology.

The early studies of plant growth and development focused on embryogenesis. In the past twenty five years, it became possible to successfully analyze many more developmental processes, hence plant developmental biology became the generally accepted terminology. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach using expertise and tools from genetics, molecular biology and cell biology to study processes in development also beyond the formation of the embryo. Around that time, initiatives were taken to address biological questions in just a few model systems, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Zea mays, Antirrhinum majus and Petunia hybrida, while the < > model systems, i.e. potato, tobacco, used in regeneration and grafting experiments, were increasingly abandoned. International research programs were initiated in Arabidopsis at first to create stock centers and databases to proceed faster with the scientific research and to get deeper insight into plant biology. During the last five years the maize community made tremendous progress in developing tools and resources for their system. Milestones in plant developmental biology discussed relate to the molecular-genetic approach to study embryogenesis, autoregulation of meristems, leaf and flower initiation, leaf and flower formation and cell specification in the root. Developmental biology changed the research from descriptive to causal resulting in a number of genetic models. Future developments in research will focus on the study of a specific gene activity in a genome-wide context. The building of molecular networks will allow computer modeling of biological processes and its use for predictions and further experimentation. Sequence information derived from the multiple genome projects will be exploited in comparative biology.

DNA, Plant↗
PubMed2005

Hierarchical phylogenetics as a quantitative analytical framework for evolutionary developmental biology.

Phylogenetics has inherent utility in evolutionary developmental biology (EDB) as it is an established methodology for estimating evolutionary relationships and for making comparisons between levels of biological organization. However, explicit phylogenetic methods generally have been limited to two levels of organization in EDB-the species and the gene. We demonstrate that phylogenetic methods can be applied broadly to other organizational levels, such as morphological structures or cell types, to identify evolutionary patterns. We present examples at and between different hierarchical levels of organization to address questions central to EDB. We argue that this application of "hierarchical phylogenetics" can be a unifying analytical approach to the field of EDB.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

The color purple: analyzing alkaline phosphatase expression in experimentally manipulated sea urchin embryos in an undergraduate developmental biology course.

In these laboratory exercises, developed for a sophomore/junior-level undergraduate course in Developmental Biology, students explore the processes of differentiation and morphogenesis in sea urchin embryos by monitoring the spatio-temporal expression pattern of the endoderm marker, alkaline phosphatase. Once students have determined the normal alkaline phosphatase expression pattern, they are asked to treat sea urchin embryos in some way that perturbs normal morphogenesis. Their task is to discover whether the chosen treatment perturbs both morphogenesis and differentiation of the gut or only morphogenesis. The ease with which sea urchin embryos can be cultured and manipulated provide the Developmental Biology instructor with a powerful system for inviting students to explore questions regarding differentiation and morphogenesis.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗
PubMed2005

Regenerative medicine and developmental biology: the role of the extracellular matrix.

The principles and ultimate goals of regenerative medicine and developmental biology involve a complex sequence of events, culminating in the formation of structurally and functionally normal tissues and organs. The molecular composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a critical role in cellular migration and differentiation events. Mammalian ECM, derived from various tissues and organs, has been used as a biologic scaffold for therapeutic regenerative applications. Hundreds of thousands of human patients have benefited from the use of biologic scaffolds composed of naturally occurring ECM. The mechanisms by which ECM induces constructive remodeling instead of scar tissue formation are only beginning to be understood. This article reviews composition of mammalian ECM, its poorly understood role in developmental biology, and the clinical applications that have resulted from the use of this naturally occurring scaffold.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Status of transgenic chicken models for developmental biology.

The chick embryo is a classic model that has been used to gain insight into developmental processes and cell fate within the embryo for over a century. For the most part, investigators have implanted quail cells into a chicken embryo. A more powerful tool for developmental biology research than the quail:chick chimera system would be to have lines of transgenic chickens expressing reporter genes that are readily available to the research community. However, avian transgenic technology has been fraught with technical difficulties, and transgenic chickens expressing reporter genes have only recently been developed. The goal of this review is to report the technologies that have been used to generate transgenic chickens and to discuss the challenges in generating avian transgenics for developmental biology research.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Integrating developmental biology into the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Bath, United Kingdom.

The undergraduate curriculum for bioscience degrees at the University of Bath is outlined, and the place is described of the developmental biology components within it. In the first year, all students receive four lectures on animal development and four on plant development. In the second year, many choose substantial lecture and practical courses on animal development, which outline the early development of Xenopus, mouse and Drosophila. The third year is usually spent on placement, with a company or research institute, a few of which are developmental biology-based, and may also involve some distance learning. The fourth year is spent back in Bath. Students interested in developmental biology can opt for advanced courses covering vertebrate organogenesis, developmental neurobiology and plant development. There are also one-semester, final-year projects spent in the labs of faculty members, several of whom specialise in developmental biology and offer projects accordingly.

Developmental Biology↗
PubMed2000

Applications of developmental biology to medicine and animal agriculture.

With the complete sequence of the human genome expected by winter 2001, genomic-based drug discovery efforts of the pharmaceutical industry are focusing on finding the relatively few therapeutically useful genes from among the total gene set. Methods to rapidly elucidate gene function will have increasing value in these investigations. The use of model organisms in functional genomics has begun to be recognized and exploited and is one example of the emerging use of the tools of developmental biology in recent drug discovery efforts. The use of protein products expressed during embryo-genesis and the use of certain pluripotent cell populations (stem cells) as candidate therapeutics are other applications of developmental biology to the treatment of human diseases. These agents may be used to repair damaged or diseased tissues by inducing or directing developmental programs that recapitulate embryonic processes to replace specialized cells. The activation or silencing of embryonic genes in the disease state, particularly those encoding transcription factors, is another avenue of exploitation. Finally, the direct drug-induced manipulation of embryonic development is a unique application of developmental biology in animal agriculture.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2000

Impact of developmental biology on medicine.

How a single zygote develops into a complex organism is the greatest mystery in biomedical science. The discipline of studying this developmental process is called "developmental biology". With advances in genetics, molecular biology, and genomics and judicious use of various model organisms, modern developmental biologists are gradually unveiling the mystery of the developmental process. During this process, embryonic cells proliferate and differentiate to form various tissues and organs. Eventually, a fully functioning organism results. The embryo possesses the mysterious power to give rise to all kinds of new cells and tissues. If we can harness the power of embryogenesis, the lost function of a diseased organ might be restored. To demonstrate the potential impact of developmental research on future medical care, we cite major progress in several areas such as 1) the search for human disease genes and the study of gene function using model organisms; 2) the power of stem cells; and 3) bioartificial organs. Medical researchers in the 21st century should have an ample knowledge of developmental biology and an ability to use various model organisms to study gene function. Through this, new treatments using the power of embryogenesis may evolve.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Gravitational studies in cellular and developmental biology.

The paucity of data on the role of gravity in cellular and developmental biology has been examined, and a hypothesis has been generated that unifies potential gravity sensitivity in both plant and animal systems. This hypothesis considers the macromolecular order and functional importance of the extracellular matrix compartment, the intracellular cytoskeleton compartment, and the connecting plasma membrane-signal transduction compartment of plant and animal systems as potentially sensitive to alterations in the unit gravity environment in which they evolved.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

The phylogenetic position of the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a model system in developmental biology: an invitation to the comparative method.

The zebrafish, Danio (Brachydanio) rerio, has become one of the most widely studied model systems in developmental biology. We present a DNA-based phylogeny of zebrafish and other species of the genus Danio, and the genera Rasbora, Puntius and Cyprinus. Homologous regions of the large (16S) mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction and directly sequenced. The phylogeny revealed: (i) the zebrafish, Danio (Brachydanio) rerio, is identical in its 16S sequence to its aquarium breeding morph, the leopard danio; (ii) the pearl danio (Danio albolineatus) is more closely related to the zebrafish than the giant danio (Danio aequipinnatus); and (iii) species of the genus Rasbora (hetermorpha, trilineata, elegans, pauciperforata, dorsiocellata) are more closely related to the danios than members of the genus Puntius (tetrazona, conchonius) and Cyprinus, the carp. All of these species are readily available in the aquarium trade, easily kept and bred in captivity, and amenable to developmental work. It is hoped that this molecular phylogeny will invite developmental biologists to use the comparative method to ask questions about function (e.g. cellular and genetic aspects) and evolution of zebrafish developmental biology in a phylogenetic context.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Direct development in the lungless salamanders: what are the consequences for developmental biology, evolution and phylogenesis?

Direct development is a widespread alternate reproductive mode in living amphibians that is characterized by evolutionary loss of the free-living, aquatic larval stage. Courtship, mating, and oviposition occur on land, and the terrestrial egg hatches as a fully formed, miniature adult. While it is the most common reproductive mode in urodeles, development outside the reproductive tract of the female that proceeds directly to a terrestrial hatchling occurs in only a single lineage, the lungless salamanders of the family Plethodontidae. Evolution of direct development in plethodontids has contributed importantly to the extraordinary evolutionary success of this speciose, geographically widespread, and morphologically and ecologically diverse taxon. Developmental consequences and correlates include increased egg size and embryonic development time, loss of larval structures and ontogenetic repatterning, and altered pattern formation in organogenesis. Evolutionary and phylogenetic consequences and correlates include the loss of larval constraints and origin of morphological novelty, and frequent homoplasy. Analysis of direct development in an evolutionary context illustrates the complex interplay between processes of phylogenetic divergence and developmental biology, and substantiates the prominent role of developmental processes in both constraining phenotypic variation and promoting phenotypic diversity. Despite the proven suitability of direct-developing plethodontid salamanders for laboratory and field study, knowledge of basic features of their developmental biology remains far below that available for many other urodeles. Examination of such features of these "non-model" organisms is an appropriate and deserving goal of future research.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Developmental biology meets with reproductive engineering; interdisciplinary science area as a breakthrough.

It has been postulated many times that different scientific topics and strategies often encounter each other, which create cutting edge research field resulting in further significant progresses of science. This was also a lesson bestowed by Prof. Raymond Wegmann where he created innovative research field for biology, molecular biology and biochemistry-biophysics. Progresses of developmental biology were boosted by molecular biology and reproductive engineering where ES cells and embryonic manipulation are necessary. There are no questions about the utility of their technologies. Reviews on their contributions with respect to the condition of genome manipulation are addressed.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

The role of textbooks in communicating developmental biology.

Writing a textbook that synthesized the field from the perspectives of embryology, genetics, cell biology and molecular biology was a challenge. Because this field evolves so rapidly, a textbook can only lay the basic foundation for understanding new information and provide the framework that helps scholars place new information into context throughout their career. In this essay, I propose that an international college of specialists be established to provide authoritative online updates on developmental biology topics as a service to students and the professional developmental biology community.

Developmental Biology↗
PubMed1999

Developmental biology and the redirection or replacement of cells.

The aim of developmental biology is to understand how an egg converts itself into a complete organism through the processes of cell differentiation, morphogenesis and size regulation. The principles that have emerged over recent decades include the constancy of the genome in nearly all cells of an individual, the existence of stem cells in many organs and the overwhelming importance of signalling between cells for the determination of their fate. These and other characteristics of development are discussed here in relation to the prospect of achieving cell and tissue correction or replacement with the help of nuclear transplantation and signalling factors. Nuclear transplantation offers a one-step procedure for generating multipotent embryo cells from the cells of an adult tissue such as skin. It should be possible to proliferate the resulting cells as can be done for mouse embryonic stem cells. Embryo cells can be made to differentiate in many directions by exposing them to various agents or to different concentrations of a single factor such as the transforming growth factor beta class signalling molecule activin. The possibility of a cancerous condition being acquired during these experimental manipulations can be guarded against by transfecting cells with a conditional suicide gene. Thus it may be possible to generate replacement cells or tissues from an adult human for transplantation back to the original donor, without the disadvantage of any genetic incompatibility.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

The future of evolutionary developmental biology.

Combining fields as diverse as comparative embryology, palaeontology, molecular phylogenetics and genome analysis, the new discipline of evolutionary developmental biology aims at explaining how developmental processes and mechanisms become modified during evolution, and how these modifications produce changes in animal morphology and body plans. In the next century this should give us far greater mechanistic insight into how evolution has produced the vast diversity of living organisms, past and present.

Animals↗