Byrnes W Malcolm, Eckberg William R
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Howard University, 520 W. Street NW, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
Dev Biol. 2006 Aug 1;296(1):1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.04.445. Epub 2006 Apr 22.
Ecological developmental biology (Eco-Devo) involves the study of development in its natural environmental context as opposed to the laboratory setting. Ernest E. Just was an early 20th century African-American embryologist who devoted his career to studying the early development of marine invertebrates in the United States and abroad. Through detailed study of the fertilization process, he came to see the cell cortex as playing a central role in development, inheritance, and evolution. This paper, after presenting some of Just's scientific and philosophical contributions, argues that Just was an Eco-Devo biologist. Three lines of evidence are given. First, Just believed that intimate knowledge of the natural history of the marine animal under study--hence, the natural setting in which fertilization occurs--was essential. Second, he stressed the importance of the egg's "normality"--how well its condition in the laboratory corresponds to the natural, fertilizable state. Finally, Just was an organicist, believing that organisms are holistic systems with emergent properties that arise from their organization and complexity. Although other scientists may stand out more clearly as founding architects of Eco-Devo, E. E. Just, with his unwavering insistence on the normality and holistic integrity of the egg cell, was one of its purest adherents.
生态发育生物学（Eco-Devo）涉及在自然环境背景下而非实验室环境中对发育进行研究。欧内斯特·E·贾斯特是20世纪早期的一位非裔美国胚胎学家，他一生致力于研究美国国内外海洋无脊椎动物的早期发育。通过对受精过程的详细研究，他逐渐认识到细胞皮层在发育、遗传和进化中起着核心作用。本文在介绍了贾斯特的一些科学和哲学贡献后，认为贾斯特是一位生态发育生物学的生物学家。给出了三条证据。第一，贾斯特认为，深入了解所研究的海洋动物的自然史——即受精发生的自然环境——至关重要。第二，他强调了卵子“正常状态”的重要性——即其在实验室中的状态与自然可受精状态的契合程度。最后，贾斯特是一位有机论者，他认为生物体是具有从其组织和复杂性中产生的涌现特性的整体系统。尽管其他科学家可能作为生态发育生物学的奠基者更为突出，但欧内斯特·E·贾斯特凭借其对卵细胞正常状态和整体完整性的坚定坚持，是该领域最纯粹的支持者之一。
