Conrad Hal Waddington (1905-1975) : el naixement de l'epigenètica

Authors

  • José Luis Paternain Suberviola
  • Maria Cabré Bargalló
  • Miguel Ángel Montero i Simó
  • Antoni Romeu Figuerola

Abstract

Waddington was an active investigator as an embryologist and genetist from the 1930s to 1950s. Over this period he did a brilliant work in theoretical biology developing concepts such as «genetic assimilation» and «epigenetic landscape ».Waddingtons epigenetic landscape is a metaphor for how gene regulation modulates development. This idea was actually based on experiment: Waddington found that one effect of mutation was to affect how cells differentiated. In the studies of development,Waddington speculated on the meaning of the «epigenetic landscape» as reflected in his works Organisers and Genes (1940) and The strategy of the Genes (1957). Waddington describes epigenetics as the causal analysis of development, in other words, all those mechanisms (genetics and environmental) necessary to activate the genetic program of development.

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Published

2010-04-29

Issue

Nova època, vol. 2 (2) : 2009

Section

Articles

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