Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Waddington's canalization revisited: developmental stability and evolution.

Mark L Siegal1, Aviv Bergman

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, and Center for Computational Genetics and Biological Modeling, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5020, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|June 26, 2002
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Haematopoietic stem cell number is not solely defined by niche availability.

Nature·2025
Same author

Asymmetric development and function of paired sperm-storage organs in <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025
Same author

Robustness revisited: On the neutral evolution of centrality and localization.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025
Same author

The dynamics of <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i> infection in <i>Galleria mellonella</i>.

mSphere·2025
Same author

The Dynamics of <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i> infection in <i>Galleria mellonella</i>.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Epistasis and cryptic QTL identified using modified bulk segregant analysis of copper resistance in budding yeast.

Genetics·2025
Same journal

The TaMYB55-TaSnRK1α1-TabZIP9 module confers heat stress tolerance in wheat.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Superstatistics approach to turbulent circulation fluctuations.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

A molecular timescale for evolution of cobamide biosynthesis.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Pierre Chambon, a pioneer of molecular biology and gene regulation in eukaryotes.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Granulosa cell glycogen fuels the avascular corpus luteum.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same journal

Synthetic essentiality of TRAIL/TNFSF10 in VHL-deficient renal cell carcinoma.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
See all related articles

Developmental processes inherently create robustness, known as canalization, which limits phenotypic variation. This biological canalization arises from complex genetic networks, not solely from natural selection for optimal traits.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental biology
  • Evolutionary genetics
  • Systems biology

Background:

  • Organisms exhibit low phenotypic variation despite genetic and environmental diversity.
  • This robustness, termed canalization, has been attributed to natural selection favoring optimal phenotypes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether canalization is an evolved trait or an emergent property of developmental systems.
  • To model developmental processes as genetic networks and assess their inherent canalizing capacity.

Main Methods:

  • Developmental processes were modeled as networks of interacting transcriptional regulators.
  • Canalization was quantified by measuring the insensitivity of a network's equilibrium state to mutations.
  • The relationship between network complexity (connectivity) and canalization was analyzed.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Developmental networks inherently constrain genetic systems, producing canalization without selection for an optimum.
  • Higher network connectivity correlates with increased canalization, demonstrating a dependency on system complexity.
  • Phenotypic variation is suppressed as an emergent property of complex genetic interactions.

Conclusions:

  • Canalization may be an inevitable consequence of complex developmental-genetic systems.
  • Evolutionary explanations for canalization may not be necessary, as it can arise intrinsically.
  • Understanding network architecture is key to comprehending biological robustness.