Biology 224: Animal Development: Determination vs. Plasticity

The way an individual animal develops is largely a product of the evolutionary history of its species. Accordingly, fundamental processes of embryonic development are largely genetically pre-programmed. Yet, the trajectory of an individual’s development can be altered profoundly by the environment in which development unfolds. This course provides an introduction to basic principles of animal development, showing how the complementary approaches of embryology and molecular analyses have converged to unify the field to address long standing questions of how developmental mechanisms balance a pre-programmed process with environmental influences. Applies to the Organismal major requirement.