Embryonated, unembryonated and de-embryonated are terms generally used in reference to eggs or, in

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, to seeds. The words are often used as professional

jargon Jargon, or technical language, is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular Context (language use), communicative context and may not be well understood outside ...

rather than as universally applicable terms or concepts. Examples of relevant fields in which the words are useful include

reproductive biology Reproductive biology includes both sexual and asexual reproduction. Reproductive biology includes a wide number of fields: * Reproductive systems * Endocrinology * Sexual development (Puberty) * Sexual maturity * Reproduction * Fertility H ...

virology Virology is the Scientific method, scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host (biology), ...

microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their host (biology), hosts, and the relationship between them. As a List of biology disciplines, biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in questio ...

entomology Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

, and

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting animal products such as meat, Eggs as food, eggs or feathers. The practice of animal husbandry, raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typ ...

husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. ...

. Since the words are widely used in the various disciplines, there seems to be little present prospect of replacing them with universal, definitive, and distinct terms.

Meaning

The terms ''embryonated'', ''unembryonated'' and ''de-embryonated'' respectively mean "having an

embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...

", "not having an embryo", and "having lost an embryo", and they most often refer to eggs. In

Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an list of companies of the United States by state, American company that publishes reference work, reference books and is mostly known for Webster's Dictionary, its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary pub ...

the earliest known use of the term "embryonated" dates from 1687, while Oxford gives a reference dating from 1669.

Embryonate

The term ''embryonate'' can be used as an

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

to mean ''embryonated'', or as a

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

to mean ''one containing an embryo'' (e.g. "We selected only the embryonates and discarded the rest"). ''Embryonate'' can also be used as an

intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...

meaning ''to develop an embryo'' (e.g. "In 2-4 weeks after deposition in soil, they embryonate if the soil conditions are suitable").

De-embryonate

''De-embryonate'' refers to the removal of embryos from seeds or similar reproductive units, typically in physiological studies. As with embrionate, it can either be a verb, noun or adjective. In some contexts the term "embryonectomy" may be used. For example, loss of the embryo may result from the activity of

seed predation Seed predation, often referred to as granivory, is a type of plant-animal interaction in which granivores (seed predators) feed on the seeds of plants as a main or exclusive food source,Hulme, P.E. and Benkman, C.W. (2002) "Granivory", pp. 13 ...

by insects.

Usage

There often is confusion in applying the term to various classes of unfertilised eggs and

trophic egg A trophic egg is an egg (biology), egg whose function is not reproduction but nutrition; in essence, the trophic egg serves as food for offspring hatched from viable eggs. In most species that produce them, a trophic egg is usually an Fertilization, ...

s, depending on the area of expertise.

Virology

In virology, eggs of domestic poultry are used for culturing viruses for research purposes. Viruses generally can propagate only in live cells, so only a fertilised egg with a good supply of growing embryonic tissue is useful. Practitioners call such an egg ''embryonated'', as opposed to merely fertilised, because they're referring to an advanced stage of development, not merely after fertilisation.

Entomology

In entomology, an egg sometimes is called unembryonated until it contains a visibly segmented embryo. An unembryonated egg might be a trophic egg, probably (but not necessarily) unfertilised or at least infertile. Such an egg will not contain a viable

zygote A zygote (; , ) is a eukaryote, eukaryotic cell (biology), cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individ ...

. Alternatively, "unembryonated" might refer to an egg that is "immature", not yet well into the process of development. These are likely to take a long time to hatch, as opposed to eggs that are laid partly incubated and ready to hatch soon after, or even at the time of

oviposition The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

. "Unembryonated" can also describe an empty shell, such as a nit, the egg of a louse that has already hatched or has died. However, this usage is rarely described. Burgess (1995) states: "We have...come to reserve the term "nit" for the hatched and empty egg shell and refer to the developing embryonated egg as an "egg"".

Helminthology

In helminthology, the state of development of an egg is often relevant to particular phases of the life cycle; commonly the visible presence of an embryo is an important criterion for egg "maturity". Use of this definition of embryonated is common in certain scientific literature. For example: "...Immature eggs are discharged in the biliary ducts and in the stool. Eggs become embryonated in water".Robert W. Tolan, Jr.; Fascioliasis Due to Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica Infection. Posted: 01/30/2011; Laboratory Medicine. 2011;42(2):107-116. © 2011 American Society for Clinical Pathology

References

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External links

Merriam-Webster - embryonated
Physiology Virology Embryology