In
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
, epigenesis (or, in contrast to
preformationism
In the history of biology, preformationism (or preformism) is a formerly popular theory that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves. Instead of assembly from parts, preformationists believed that the form of living things exis ...
, neoformationism) is the process by which plants, animals and fungi develop from a seed, spore or egg through a sequence of steps in which
cells differentiate and
organs form.
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
first published the theory of epigenesis in his book ''
On the Generation of Animals
The ''Generation of Animals'' (or ''On the Generation of Animals''; Ancient Greek, Greek: ''Περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως'' (''Peri Zoion Geneseos''); Latin: ''De Generatione Animalium'') is one of the biological works of the Corpus Aristote ...
.'' Although epigenesis appears to be an obvious fact in today's
genetic age, historically,
creationist theories of
life's origins hindered its acceptance.
However, during the late 18th century an extended and controversial debate among biologists finally led epigenesis to eclipse the long-established preformationist view.
[Conference, Abstracts of papers presented.] The embryologist
Caspar Friedrich Wolff refuted preformationism in 1759 in favor of epigenesis, but this did not put an end to preformationism.
See also
*
Epigenetics
In biology, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression that happen without changes to the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix ''epi-'' (ἐπι- "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "on top of" or "in ...
*
Epigenesis (disambiguation)
References
External links
Aristotle: ''
On the Generation of Animals
The ''Generation of Animals'' (or ''On the Generation of Animals''; Ancient Greek, Greek: ''Περὶ ζῴων γενέσεως'' (''Peri Zoion Geneseos''); Latin: ''De Generatione Animalium'') is one of the biological works of the Corpus Aristote ...
'' (extracts)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epigenesis
Developmental biology
Embryology