Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Waddington’s epigenetics or the pictorial meetings of development and genetics

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In 1956, in his Principles of Embryology, Conrad Hal Waddington explained that the word “epigenetics” should be used to translate and update Wilhelm Roux’ German notion of “Entwicklungsmechanik” (1890) to qualify the studies focusing on the mechanisms of development. When Waddington mentioned it in 1956, the notion of epigenetics was not yet popular, as it would become from the 1980s. However, Waddington referred first to the notion in the late 1930s. While his late allusion clearly reveals that Waddington readily associated the notion of epigenetics with the developmental process, in the contemporary uses of the notion this developmental connotation seems to have disappeared. The advent and success of molecular biology have probably contributed to focusing biologists’ attention on the “genetic” or the “non-genetic” over the “developmental”. In the present paper, I first examine the links that exist, in Waddington’s work, between the classical notion of epigenesis in embryology and those of epigenetics that Waddington proposed to connect, and even synthesize, data both from embryology and genetics. Second, I show that Waddington’s own view of epigenetics has changed over time and I analyze how these changes appear through his many representations (both schematic or metaphorical images) of the relationships between genetic signals and developmental processes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The Modern Synthesis was developed in the 1940s by evolutionary biologist and population geneticists. Consequently it has been argued by many evolutionary developmental biologists that the Modern Synthesis was promoting genetics at the expense of development.

  2. Gilbert’s arguments are the following one: because he was aware of the different kind of problems the two fields were dealing with, because he was a true interdisciplinary scientist, because he was able to assess some of the main philosophical differences between those two fields, and because he was sensitive to the aesthetic difference between genetics and embryology, between a certain form of simplicity as opposed to a certain picture of complexity (Gilbert 1991b; Gilbert and Browder 1991) and see also the nice 2002 paper of Linda van Speybroeck.

  3. See Stotz and Griffiths 2016.

  4. Another anthology prior to Dupont and Schmitt’s gives access to the founding texts in embryology in English: Willier and Oppenheimer 1974.

  5. The cell theory is the theory, which considers that every living organism is composed of units – the cells—characterized by their specific autonomy and their ability to divide (Virchow 1978).

  6. Name given to the early cells in an embryo.

  7. Note that Hans Driesch made several of his famous experiments on marine invertebrate embryos with Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866–1945) at a time when the latter was still mostly known as an embryologist. He started working on sex determination and genetics from 1900.

  8. Note that in 1924, Hilde Mangold was 26 years old. She discovered the phenomenon of embryonic induction, as well as what would then be called Spemann’s organizer, through experiments that she conducted during her Ph.D. thesis directed by Hans Spemann. Unfortunately she died in an accident the same year of her discovery. Therefore, in 1935 Hans Spemann received the Nobel Prize alone for this discovery, since Nobel prizes can only be given to people during their lifetime.

  9. See Robertson 1977 for precise biographical indications and also Gilbert 1991a, b.

  10. During his life, he wrote several popular scientific articles, mainly for Discovery (Robertson 1977).

  11. Even if in embryology the inducer could be external, it was clear that the cytoplasmic information was also central.

  12. Many geneticists would, in our time, embrace Waddington’s suggestion and try to identify the processes by which the genes of the genotype progressively give rise to phenotypic effects. One can think for instance of E. H. Davidson’s work on gene regulatory networks (Davidson 2006, 2009, 2010).

References

  • Baedke, J. (2013). The epigenetic landscape in the course of time: Conrad Hal Waddington’s methodological impact on the life sciences. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 44(4), 756–773.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bard, J. B. L. (2008). Waddington’s legacy to developmental and theoretical biology. Biological Theory, 3(3), 188–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, E. H. (2006). The regulatory genome: Gene regulatory networks in development and evolution. San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, E. H. (2009). Network design principles from the sea urchin embryo. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 19, 535–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, E. H. (2010). Emerging properties of animal gene regulatory networks. Nature, 468, 911–920.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, E. H., & Levin, M. (2005). Gene regulatory networks. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(14): 4935–4935.

  • Driesch, H. (1892). Entwicklungsmechanische Studien I–II. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 53, 160–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Driesch, H. (1893). Zur Verlagerung der Blastomeren des Echinideies. Anatomischer Anzeiger, 8, 348–357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Driesch, H., & Morgan, T. H. (1896). Zur Analyse der ersten Entwicklungsstadien des Ctenophoreneies. Archiv für Entwicklungsmechanik der Organismen, 2, 204–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dupont, J.-C. (2017). Wilhelm His and mechanistic approaches to development at the time of Entwicklungsmechanik. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 39(3), 21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dupont, J.-C., & Schmitt, S. (2004). Du feuillet au gène: une histoire de l’embryologie moderne, fin XVIIIe-XXe siècle. Paris: Rue d’Ulm.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Felsenfeld, G. (2014). A brief history of epigenetics. Cold Spring Harbour Perspectives in Biology, 6(1), a018200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galperin, C. (2008). Conrad Hall Waddington ou comment l’épigénétique réunit l’embryologie et la génétique. In P.-A. Miquel (Ed.), Biologie du XXIe siècle: Évolution des concepts fondateurs (pp. 131–158). Bruxelles: de Boeck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, S. F. (1991a). Epigenetic landscaping: Waddington’s use of cell fate bifurcation diagrams. Biology and Philosophy, 6, 135–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, S. F. (1991b). Induction and the origins of developmental genetics. In S. Gilbert (Ed.), A conceptual history of modern embryology. New York: Plenum Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, S. F., & Browder, L. W. (1991). A conceptual history of modern embryology. Berlin: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, S. F., & Burian, R. M. (2003). Development, evolution, and evolutionary developmental biology. In B. K. Hall & W. M. Olson (Eds.), Keywords and concepts in evolutionary developmental biology (pp. 61–68). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, A. D., Allis, C. D., & Bernstein, E. (2007). Epigenetics: A landscape takes shape. Cell, 128(4), 635–638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, S. J. (1977). Ontogeny and phylogeny. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goy, I. (2018). Was Aristotle the ‘father’ of the epigenesis doctrine? History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 40(2), 28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haecker, V. (1918). Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Eigenschaftsanalyse (Phänogenetik): Gemeinsame Aufgabe der Entwicklungsgeschichte, Vererbungs- und Rassenlehre. Jena: G. Fischer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haig, D. (2004). The (dual) origin of epigenetics. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 69, 67–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, B. K. (2012). Evolutionary developmental biology. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, B. K., & Laubichler, M. D. (2009). Conrad Hal Waddington, theoretical biology, and evo–devo. Biological Theory, 3(3), 185–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, B. K., & Olson, W. M. (2003). Keywords and concepts in evolutionary developmental biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertwig, O., & Hertwig, R. (1887). Über den Befruchtungs- und Theilungsvorgang des thierischen Eies unter den Einfluss äusserer Agentien. Jenaische Zeitschrift für Naturwissenschaft, 20, 477–510.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johannsen, W. (1911). The genotype conception of heredity. The American Naturalist, 45(531), 59–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laubichler, M. D., & Hall, B. K. (2008). Conrad Hal Waddington: Forefather of theoretical EvoDevo. Biological Theory, 3(3), 185–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maienschein, J. (2012). Epigenesis and preformationism. In Zalta, E.N. (ed.) The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/epigenesis/.

  • Morange, M. (2009). What history tells us XVII. Conrad Waddington and the nature of life. Journal of Biosciences, 34(2), 195–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, T. H. (1934). Embryology and genetics. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Needham, J., Waddington, C. H., Needham, D. M. (1934). Physico-chemical experiments on the amphibian organizer. In Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Characters, 114(789): 393–422.

  • Nicoglou, A. (2015). The evolution of phenotypic plasticity: Genealogy of a debate in genetics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 50, 67–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicoglou, A., & Merlin, F. (2017). Epigenetics: A way to bridge the gap between biological fields. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 66, 73–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noble, D. (2015). Conrad Waddington and the origin of epigenetics. Journal of Experimental Biology, 218(6), 816–818.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Odling-Smee, J. F., Laland, K. N., & Feldman, M. W. (2003). Niche construction: The neglected process in evolution. Monographs in population biology (Vol. 37). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, E. (2017a). The life organic: The theoretical biology club and the roots of epigenetics. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, E. (2017b). So far like the present period’: A reply to C.H. Waddington’s differences with the creators of the modern evolutionary synthesis: A tale of two genes. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 39(3), 19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, A. (1977). ‘Conrad Hal Waddington: 8 November 1905–26 September 1975′. Biographical Memoirs: Fellows of the Royal Society, 23, 575–622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roux, W. (1894). The problems, methods, and scope of developmental mechanics. Biological Lectures of the Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole (Vol. 3, pp. 149–190). Boston: Ginn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinnott, D. W., Dunn, L. C., & Dobzhansky, T. (1950). Principle of genetics. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Book Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slack, J. M. W. (2002). Conrad Hal Waddington: The last Renaissance biologist? Nature Reviews Genetics, 3, 889–895.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spemann, H., & Mangold, O. (1924). Über Induktion von Embryonalanlagen durch Implantation artfremder Organisatoren. Archiv für Entwicklungsmechanick der Organismen, 100, 599–638.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stotz, K., & Griffiths, P. (2016). Epigenetics: ambiguities and implications. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 38(22). https://doi-org.rproxy.sc.univ-paris-diderot.fr/10.1007/s40656-016-0121-2.

  • Van Speybroeck, L. (2002). From epigenesis to epigenetics. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 981(1), 61–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virchow, R. (1978). Cellular pathology as based upon physiological and pathological history: Twenty lectures delivered in the Pathological Institute of Berlin during the months of February, March, and April, 1858 (Special ed.). Birmingham, Ala.: Classics of Medicine Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1930). Developmental mechanics of chicken and duck embryos. Nature, 125, 924.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1932). Experiments on the development of chick and duck embryos cultivated in vitro. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, B, 221, 179–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1935). How animals develop. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1939). An introduction to modern genetics. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1940). Organisers and genes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1942). The epigenotype. Endeavour, 1, 18–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1954). The integration of gene controlled processes and its bearing on evolution. Atti del IX Congresso Internazionale di Genetica Publicati come supplemento al volume VI Caryologia, 232–245.

  • Waddington, C. H. (1956). Principles of Embryology. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1956. http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19570100503.html.

  • Waddington, C. H. (1957). The strategy of the genes. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H. (1959). Evolutionary systems-animal and human. Nature, 183, 1634–1638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waddington, C. H., Needham, J., & Needham, D. M. (1933). Physico-chemical experiments on the amphibian organiser. Nature, 132, 239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weinhold, B. (2006). Epigenetics: The science of change. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114(3), A67–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard, M.-J. (2003). Developmental plasticity and evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willier, B. H., & Oppenheimer, J. M. (1974). Foundations of experimental embryology. Royal Oak: Hafner Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E. B. (1893). The mosaic theory of development. Biological Lectures from the Marine Biological Laboratory, 2, 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E. B. (1896). The Cell in Development and Inheritance, New York: Macmillan. (2nd ed. 1900).

  • Wilson, E. B. (1898). Cell-lineage and ancestral reminiscence. Biological Lectures from the Marine Biological Laboratory, 21–42.

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank Charles Wolfe, Staffan Müller-Wille and Ohad Parnes for comments and insights on previous versions of this article. This work was supported financially by the “Who am I?” Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-11-LABX- 0071) funded by the French government through its “Investments for the Future” Program operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under Grant No ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CRPMS and IJM, University of Paris 7, Paris, France

    Antonine Nicoglou

  2. IHPST Paris, Paris, France

    Antonine Nicoglou

Authors
  1. Antonine Nicoglou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonine Nicoglou.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nicoglou, A. Waddington’s epigenetics or the pictorial meetings of development and genetics. HPLS 40, 61 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-018-0228-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-018-0228-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation