Abstract

DRESSINO, Vicente. Ontogeny and Evolution Through the Lens of the Developmental Systems Theory (DST). Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2017, vol.22, n.3, pp.265-273. ISSN 0120-548X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v22n3.63405.

The Developmental Systems Theory (DST) intends to make a conceptual summary that links ontogenic development to evolution. This theory's background may be found in the works of Waddington and Bertalanffy, who provided the foundations for the canalization of development and the biological systems theory, respectively. The aim of this work is to make a preliminary conceptual analysis of DST as a theoretical framework for developmental biology in particular and for evolutionary biology in general. For that purpose, we will take into account some of the concepts and proposals that constitute this framework, and we will work with secondary data obtained from the bibliography. We conclude that: 1. DST is able to argue against the gene centrist vision about the explanations that try to justify biological and evolutionary development; 2. DST argues coherently in favor of the role of Epigenetics in ontogeny and evolution; 3. In connection to that, the role of natural selection is restricted to a secondary plane; 4. DST proposes that the nature/ nurture dichotomy must be overcome; and 5. DST constitutes a possible methodological research program composed of a series of not necessarily related hypothesis, theories, and methods that may be confirmed in a relatively independent manner from the rest of the theoretical network.

Keywords : evolution; growth; genetic; epigenetic; nature/nurture.

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