Ontogeny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ontogeny (also ontogenesis or morphogenesis) describes the origin and the development of an organism from the fertilized egg to its mature form. Ontogeny is studied in developmental biology, developmental psychology, and developmental psychobiology.
In more general terms, ontogeny is defined as the history of structural change in a unity, which can be a cell, an organism, or a society of organisms, without the loss of the organization that allows that unity to exist (Maturana and Varela, 1987, p. 74).
- Recapitulation theory, the idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny
- Important publications in ontogeny
- Maturana, H. R., Varela F. J. (1987). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.
|
|
|
|---|---|
| Key concepts | Genotype-phenotype distinction · Norms of reaction · Gene-environment interaction · Heritability · Quantitative genetics |
| Genetic architecture | Dominance relationship · Epistasis · Polygenic inheritance · Pleiotropy · Plasticity · Canalisation · Fitness landscape |
| Non-genetic influences | Epigenetics · Maternal effect · Dual inheritance theory |
| Developmental architecture | Segmentation · Modularity |
| Evolution of genetic systems | Evolvability · Mutational robustness · Evolution of sex |
| Influential figures | C. H. Waddington · Richard Lewontin |
| Debates | Nature versus nurture |
| List of evolutionary biology topics | |