Abstract
The limited value most French biologists attributed to Darwinism and Mendelism in the first half of the twentieth century, and their conviction that these theories were at best insufficient to explain evolution and development, probably created conditions propitious to the development of Evo-devo at the end of the century. The separation between embryology and evolution did not exist in French biology as it did in American genetics: explanations for these two phenomena were sought equally in the “organization” of the egg. The major contribution of French biologists to Evo-devo was clearly the invention of the notion of the regulatory gene by Jacob and Monod; not the operon model per se, but the introduction of a hierarchy between two different kinds of genes. The consequence, the rise of the developmental gene concept, was not immediate, and required the active role of other biologists such as Antonio Garcia-Bellido, Allan Wilson and Stephen Jay Gould. Various obstacles had to be overcome for this concept of developmental gene to be fully accepted.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Buican D (1984) Histoire de la génétique et de l’évolutionnisme en France. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris
Burian RM, Gayon J (1999) The French school of genetics: from physiological and population genetics to regulatory molecular genetics. Annu Rev Genet 33:313–349
Burian RM, Gayon J, Zallen D (1988) The singular fate of genetics in the history of French biology, 1900–1940. J Hist Biol 21:357–402
Caullery M (1931) Le problème de l’Evolution. Payot, Paris
Debru C, Gayon J, Picard J-F (eds) (1994) Les sciences biologiques et médicales en France 1920–1950. CNRS Editions, Paris
Goldschmidt RB (1940) The material basis of evolution. Yale University Press, New Haven
Gould SJ (1977) Ontogeny and phylogeny. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass, pp 405–409
Harwood J (1993) Styles of scientific thought: the German genetics community 1900–1933. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Jacob F (1977) Evolution and tinkering. Science 196:1161–1166
Jacob F (1982) The possible and the actual. University of Washington Press, Seattle, p 44
Jacob F, Monod J (1961) Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins. J Mol Biol 3:318–356
Jacob F, Monod J (1962) Sur le mode d’action des gènes et leur régulation. Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarum Scripta Varia 22:85–95
Judson HF (1979) The eighth day of creation: the makers of the revolution in biology. Simon and Schuster, New York
King M-C, Wilson AC (1975) Evolution at two levels in humans and chimpanzees. Science 188:107–116
Le Guyader H (1994) Emmanuel Fauré-Fremiet (1883–1971): de la biologie cellulaire au problème moléculaire de la morphogenèse. In: Debru C, Gayon J, Picard J-F (eds) Les sciences biologiques et médicales en France 1920–1950. CNRS Editions, Paris, pp 177–185
Le Guyader H (2004) Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire: a visionary naturalist. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Loison L (2006) Yves Delage (1854–1920) et l’hétérogénéité du néolamarckisme français. Bull Hist Epistém Sci Vie 13(2):143–167
Loison L (2007) La statue de Lamarck. Cahiers François Viète 13:1–17
Lwoff A (1944) L’évolution physiologique: Etude des pertes de fonctions chez les microorganismes. Hermann, Paris
Lwoff A (1946) Some problems connected with spontanous biochemical mutations in bacteria. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 11:139–155
Lwoff A (1990) L’organisation du cortex chez les ciliés: un exemple d’hérédité des caractères acquis. C R Acad Sci Paris III 310:109–111
Lwoff A, Ephrussi B (eds) (1949) Unités biologiques douées de continuité génétique. CNRS, Paris
Mayr E (1961) Cause and effect in biology. Science 134:1501–1506
Monod J, Jacob F (1961) Teleonomic mechanisms in cellular metabolism, growth and differentiation. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 26:389–401
Morange M (1998) A history of molecular biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Morange M (2000) The developmental gene concept, history and limits. In: Beurton P, Falk R, Rheinberger H-J (eds) The concept of the gene in development and evolution. Cambridge University Press, New York
Morange M (2002) L’Institut de Biologie Physico-chimique de sa fondation à l’entrée dans l’ère moléculaire. La revue pour l’histoire du CNRS 7:32–40
Morange M (2005) André Lwoff: from protozoology to molecular definition of viruses. J Biosci 30:591–594
Morange M (2006) Life sciences. In: Kritzman LD (ed) The Columbia history of twentieth-century French thought. Columbia University Press, New York, pp 279–282
Sapp J (1987) Beyond the gene: cytoplasmic inheritance and the struggle for authority in genetics. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Schaffner K (1974) Logic of discovery and justification in regulatory genetics. Stud Hist Philos Sci 4:349–385
Schmitt S (2002) Lucien Cuénot et la théorie de l’évolution: un itinéraire hors norme. La revue pour l’histoire du CNRS 7:10–16
Wilson AC, Sarich VM, Maxson LR (1974) The importance of gene rearrangement in evolution: evidence from studies on rates of chromosomal, protein and anatomical evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 71:3028–3030
Wilson AC, Carlson SS, White TJ (1977) Biochemical evolution. Annu Rev Biochem 46:573–639
Acknowledgments
We are indebted to Scott Gilbert for the organization of the session which gave rise to this article, and for his permanent support for the development of historical studies; to Laurent Loison for providing us information on the French neo-Lamarckians; and to David Marsh for careful reading of the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Morange, M. French tradition and the rise of Evo-devo. Theory Biosci. 126, 149–153 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-007-0014-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-007-0014-8