Understanding Development

Alessandro Minelli is a former Professor of Zoology and, in retirement, a senior scientist at the University of Padova, Italy. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and the Italian Society for Developmental and Cell Biology. He is the author of numerous books on evolutionary and developmental biology, including The Development of Animal Form (Cambridge, 2003), Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Cambridge, 2018) and The Biology of Reproduction (Cambridge, 2019).

'Developmental biology has been described as the process by which a fertilized egg is transformed into a multicellular organism. But is it? In this thoughtful and erudite book, Alessandro Minelli forces us to step back and reconsider the subject. Using an astonishing range of examples, from pythons to lichens and from sponges to ciliates, Minelli challenges a series of generalizations and preconceptions. We see how development is not only the process of building adults, why development does not have end-points, how development need not start with a fertilized egg, why we must be careful with the concept of developmental genes, and much more. After reading this book, you might not think about developmental biology in the same way again.' Peter Holland, University of Oxford, UK

• 1. Defining development, If possible; 2. Cells and development; 3. Development as the history of the individual; 4. Revisiting the embryo; 5. Developmental sequences: sustainability vs adaptation; 6. Genes and development; 7. Emerging form; 8. The ecology of development; Concluding remarks.