Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- CHAPTER ONE CELL LINEAGE VS. INTERCELLULAR SIGNALING
- CHAPTER TWO THE BRISTLE
- CHAPTER THREE BRISTLE PATTERNS
- CHAPTER FOUR ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF DISCS
- CHAPTER FIVE THE LEG DISC
- CHAPTER SIX THE WING DISC
- CHAPTER SEVEN THE EYE DISC
- CHAPTER EIGHT HOMEOSIS
- EPILOGUE
- APPENDIX ONE Glossary of Protein Domains
- APPENDIX TWO Inventory of Models, Mysteries, Devices, and Epiphanies
- APPENDIX THREE Genes That Can Alter Cell Fates Within the (5-Cell) Mechanosensory Bristle Organ
- APPENDIX FOUR Genes That Can Transform One Type of Bristle Into Another or Into a Different Type of Sense Organ
- APPENDIX FIVE Genes That Can Alter Bristle Number by Directly Affecting SOP Equivalence Groups or Inhibitory Fields
- APPENDIX SIX Signal Transduction Pathways: Hedgehog, Decapentaplegic, and Wingless
- APPENDIX SEVEN Commentaries on the Pithier Figures
- References
- Index
EPILOGUE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- CHAPTER ONE CELL LINEAGE VS. INTERCELLULAR SIGNALING
- CHAPTER TWO THE BRISTLE
- CHAPTER THREE BRISTLE PATTERNS
- CHAPTER FOUR ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF DISCS
- CHAPTER FIVE THE LEG DISC
- CHAPTER SIX THE WING DISC
- CHAPTER SEVEN THE EYE DISC
- CHAPTER EIGHT HOMEOSIS
- EPILOGUE
- APPENDIX ONE Glossary of Protein Domains
- APPENDIX TWO Inventory of Models, Mysteries, Devices, and Epiphanies
- APPENDIX THREE Genes That Can Alter Cell Fates Within the (5-Cell) Mechanosensory Bristle Organ
- APPENDIX FOUR Genes That Can Transform One Type of Bristle Into Another or Into a Different Type of Sense Organ
- APPENDIX FIVE Genes That Can Alter Bristle Number by Directly Affecting SOP Equivalence Groups or Inhibitory Fields
- APPENDIX SIX Signal Transduction Pathways: Hedgehog, Decapentaplegic, and Wingless
- APPENDIX SEVEN Commentaries on the Pithier Figures
- References
- Index
Summary
Fly genetics in the 1900s succeeded in deciphering the logic of disc development. Its vaunted offspring – the field of fly genomics – is faster and sexier but no more powerful in its ability to solve the remaining riddles of circuitry and control. Curt Stern warned us about this irony in his essay, “The journey, not the goal”:
One of the fundamental aspects of science is its lack of purpose. … Science, during the last one hundred or more years, has been in the dangerous position of a successful poet who started by composing songs of joy and sorrow to lighten the burden of his own soul only to find that they became best-sellers. … Science has become a profession. … The later comers [have] forgotten the beginnings of the highway. Dreamy followers of crooked paths [were] their predecessors. … We should encourage anew the roaming after knowledge for the sake of the joyful adventure.
Industrialization and commercialization notwithstanding, the Fly World still offers many mysteries for aimless explorers with curiosity alone to fill their sails.
Before launching the field of fly genetics, Thomas Hunt Morgan's passion was embryology. In the preface to his 1934 book, Embryology and Genetics, Tom waxed lyrical about the promise of developmental genetics as a burgeoning hybrid field:
Since 1900, when the discovery of Mendel's work became known, one of the most amazing developments in the whole history of biology has taken place. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Imaginal DiscsThe Genetic and Cellular Logic of Pattern Formation, pp. 256Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002