Biological & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Developmental Biology

Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop and is synonymous with ontogeny. Biological development, the progressive changes in size, shape, and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potentials (genotype) are translated into functioning mature systems (phenotype). Most modern philosophical outlooks would consider that development of some kind or other characterizes all things, in both the physical and biological worlds. Such points of view go back to the very earliest days of philosophy.

In animal’s development occurs in embryonic life, but it is also found in regeneration, asexual reproduction and metamorphosis, and in the growth and differentiation of stem cells in the adult organism. In plants, development occurs in embryos, during vegetative reproduction, and in the normal outgrowth of roots, shoots and flowers. Developmental Biology has also help to generate modern stem cell biology which promises a number of important practical benefits for human health. Embryology is a subfield, the study of organisms between the one-cell stage (generally, the zygote) and the end of the embryonic stage.

Embryology and developmental biology today deal with the various steps necessary for the correct and complete formation of the body of a living organism.