{"id":255,"date":"2012-08-10T09:53:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T09:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/towardsdolly.wordpress.com\/?p=255"},"modified":"2012-08-10T09:53:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T09:53:21","slug":"waddingtons-epigenetic-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/2012\/08\/10\/waddingtons-epigenetic-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Waddington’s Epigenetic Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is a print from our collection of photographic and illustrative material from Waddington\u2019s publications. It illustrates the epigenetic landscape, the concept for which Waddington is perhaps best remembered. This image first appeared in Waddington\u2019s book The Strategy of the Genes<\/em> (Allen and Unwin, 1957) and visualises the developmental history of a cell in an embryo, represented here by a ball rolling down the \u2018landscape\u2019. As it rolls, the ball has several \u2018choices\u2019 as to which way to go \u2013 just as the developing embryo is influenced down certain \u2018paths\u2019 by various genetic and environmental factors \u2013 and by the time it reaches the bottom of the landscape, it will have made several such \u2018choices\u2019. Waddington called the pathways which are permitted \u2018chreodes\u2019 (described as \u2018the path followed by a homing missile, which finds its way to a stationary target\u2019). The underlying concept is that the entire \u2018landscape\u2019 of development is influenced by the actions and pathways of each individual gene, and also that development can even be disturbed (ie by the ball being pushed up a ridge) and yet still reach an normalised equilibrium (the bottom of the \u2018valley\u2019) before the adult state is reached.<\/p>\n

In The Strategy of the Genes<\/em>, Waddington states that although the epigenetic landscape \u2018only provides a rough and ready picture of the developing embryo, and cannot be interpreted rigorously, it has certain merits for those who, like myself, find it comforting to have some mental picture, however vague, for what they are trying to think about.\u2019 Quite! Waddington\u2019s epigenetic landscape is as influential a concept \u2013 and diagram \u2013 today as it ever was, and part of its effectiveness relies on Waddington\u2019s ability to describe a complex idea using clear language and striking visuals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a print from our collection of photographic and illustrative material from Waddington\u2019s publications. It illustrates the epigenetic landscape, the concept for which Waddington is perhaps best remembered. This image first appeared in Waddington\u2019s book The Strategy of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p40Aqf-47","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/towardsdolly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}