Australian Centre for Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Jun 22;279(1737):2299-308. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0100. Epub 2012 Mar 21.
Arrested embryonic development involves the downregulation or cessation of active cell division and metabolic activity, and the capability of an animal to arrest embryonic development results in temporal plasticity of the duration of embryonic period. Arrested embryonic development is an important reproductive strategy for egg-laying animals that provide no parental care after oviposition. In this review, we discuss each type of embryonic developmental arrest used by oviparous reptiles. Environmental pressures that might have directed the evolution of arrest are addressed and we present previously undiscussed environmentally dependent physiological processes that may occur in the egg to bring about arrest. Areas for future research are proposed to clarify how ecology affects the phenotype of developing embryos. We hypothesize that oviparous reptilian mothers are capable of providing their embryos with a level of phenotypic adaptation to local environmental conditions by incorporating maternal factors into the internal environment of the egg that result in different levels of developmental sensitivity to environmental conditions after they are laid.
胚胎发育停滞涉及到细胞分裂和代谢活动的下调或停止，动物胚胎发育停滞的能力导致胚胎期持续时间的时间可塑性。胚胎发育停滞是卵生动物的一种重要繁殖策略，它们在产卵后不提供任何亲代照顾。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了卵生爬行动物使用的每一种胚胎发育停滞类型。讨论了可能导致胚胎发育停滞进化的环境压力，并提出了以前未讨论过的、可能在卵中发生的依赖于环境的生理过程，以实现胚胎发育停滞。提出了未来的研究领域，以阐明生态学如何影响发育中胚胎的表型。我们假设，卵生爬行动物的母亲能够通过将母体因素纳入卵的内部环境，为胚胎提供对当地环境条件的表型适应水平，从而导致胚胎对环境条件的发育敏感性在产卵后产生不同的水平。
