Developmental Biology

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY IS the science that studies the mechanisms of development of animals. Some would also include the development of plants within its scope, but as mechanisms differ very substantially between animals and plants, in practice the term developmental biology is usually used to refer only to animal developmental biology.

The subject represents a fusion between three traditions of 20th—century biological science. Experimental embryology emerged in the early 20th century, being initially based mostly on microsur—gical experiments using amphibian and sea urchin embryos. Developmental genetics grew up mid—century, based mosdy on the genetics of the fruit fly Drosopbila and the laboratory mouse. Molecular biology arose from the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, and by the 1980s a group of new techniques enabled the ...