Abstract
The ways in which embryo development can vary across individuals of a population determine how genetic variation translates into adult phenotypic variation. The study of developmental variation has been hampered by the lack of quantitative methods for the joint analysis of embryo shape and the spatial distribution of cellular activity within the developing embryo geometry. By drawing from the strength of geometric morphometrics and pixel/voxel-based image analysis, we present a new approach for the biometric analysis of two-dimensional and three-dimensional embryonic images. Well-differentiated structures are described in terms of their shape, whereas structures with diffuse boundaries, such as emerging cell condensations or molecular gradients, are described as spatial patterns of intensities. We applied this approach to microscopic images of the tail fins of larval and juvenile rainbow trout. Inter-individual variation of shape and cell density was found highly spatially structured across the tail fin and temporally dynamic throughout the investigated period.
Highlights
Despite the rapidly growing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying embryological development, little is known about how development varies across the individuals of a population
The variational properties of development determine how genetic and environmental variation translate into phenotypic variation in postnatal and adult individuals [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Geometric Morphometric Image Analysis developmental variation has impeded the long-expected connection of developmental biology with the formal core of evolutionary theory
Summary
Despite the rapidly growing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying embryological development, little is known about how development varies across the individuals of a population. The variational properties of development determine how genetic and environmental variation translate into phenotypic variation in postnatal and adult individuals [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The population pool of phenotypic variation is the substrate for natural selection and, a major determinant of organismal evolution [8, 9]. Genetic and environmental factors that alter the pattern of developmental variation may increase the probability of individuals to pass a threshold towards pathological development [10, 11]
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