Segmentation

Vertebrates have a segmented vertebral column and brain.

Segmentation in biology refers to the division of some metazoan bodies and plant body plans into a series of semi-repetitive segments, and the question of the benefits and costs of doing so. As such, segmentation is related to the more general concept of modularity.

Examples of segmented animals are the annelids and arthropods. However it does not exist in cnidarians. Vertebrae are also inherited in a segmented way, making it easy for those animals to adapt to have the correct number of these spinal cord segments in the vertebral column. This has been extensively studied in mice. Among plants, the horsetails are a clear example of segmentation.

Segmentation allows for a high degree of specialization of bodily regions. This regional specialization is seen to some degree in annelids, but is an evolutionary development of the body plan of arthropods.

The process of establishing such a segmented body pattern is discussed in morphogenesis.

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The development of phenotype

Key concepts|

* Genotype–phenotype distinction
* Norms of reaction
* Gene–environment interaction
* Gene–environment correlation
* Operon
* Heritability
* Quantitative genetics
* Heterochrony
* Neoteny
* Heterotopy

Genetic architecture|

* Canalisation
* Genetic assimilation
* Dominance
* Epistasis
* Fitness landscape/evolutionary landscape
* Pleiotropy
* Plasticity
* Polygenic inheritance
* Transgressive segregation
* Sequence space

Non-genetic influences|

* Epigenetics
* Maternal effect
* Genomic imprinting
* Dual inheritance theory
* Polyphenism

Developmental architecture|

* Developmental biology
* Morphogenesis
* Eyespot
* Pattern formation
* Segmentation
* Modularity

Evolution of genetic systems|

* Evolvability
* Mutational robustness
* Neutral networks
* Evolution of sexual reproduction

Control of development|

| Systems|

* Regulation of gene expression
* Gene regulatory network
* Developmental-genetic toolkit
* Evolutionary developmental biology
* Homeobox
* Hedgehog signaling pathway
* Notch signaling pathway

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Elements|

* Homeotic gene
* Hox gene
* Pax genes
* eyeless gene
* Distal-less
* Engrailed
* cis-regulatory element
* Ligand
* Morphogen
* Cell surface receptor
* Transcription factor

Influential figures|

* C. H. Waddington
* Richard Lewontin
* François Jacob \+ Jacques Monod
* Lac operon
* Eric F. Wieschaus
* Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
* William McGinnis
* Mike Levine
* Sean B. Carroll
* Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Debates|

* Nature versus nurture
* Morphogenetic field

Index of evolutionary biology articles

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