This year, 2019, marks the centennial of embryologist E. E. Just's discovery of what is known as the fast block to polyspermy. Just's observation of the subtle changes that occur at the egg's surface during fertilization (and in experimental parthenogenesis) led him to postulate that the egg, and indeed every cell, possesses a property he called independent irritability, which represents the cell's ability to respond in a physiologically-relevant way to a variety of signals or triggers. In this paper, I argue that Just's concept of independent irritability informed his contemporary Johannes Holtfreter as Holtfreter attempted to explain the phenomena of embryonic induction and competence and that Holtfreter, in turn, influenced Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart in their formulation of the theory of facilitated variation. Just's influence is especially evident in Gerhart and Kirschner's presentations of what they call weak linkage-a property of living systems that allows core processes and components to be mixed and matched in different ways to generate novel traits. Unfortunately, the connection between Holtfreter's work and Just's has remained hidden. This paper gives examples of phenomena that exhibit weak linkage, and it lays out the case that Just's concept of independent irritability, through Holtfreter, Gerhart, and Kirschner, has broadly infiltrated modern cell and developmental biology.

中文翻译：

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EE Just对现代细胞和发育生物学产生了广泛而隐蔽的影响。

今年是2019年，标志着胚胎学家EE Just诞辰100周年。Just观察到受精过程中卵表面发生的细微变化（以及在实验性孤雌生殖过程中），使他推测卵乃至每个细胞都具有一种称为独立刺激性的特性，该特性代表了细胞在体外受精时的反应能力。与各种信号或触发器具有生理相关性的方式。在本文中，我认为Just的独立易怒性概念使他当代的Johannes Holtfreter成为了Holtfreter试图解释胚胎诱导和能力现象的原因，而Holtfreter反过来又对Marc Kirschner和John Gerhart的便利理论产生了影响。变异。只是' Gerhart和Kirschner在他们所谓的弱连接的介绍中特别明显地表明了这种影响。弱连接是生命系统的一种特性，它允许核心过程和组成部分以不同的方式混合和匹配以产生新的特征。不幸的是，Holtfreter的作品和Just的作品之间的联系一直隐藏着。本文提供了显示弱关联的现象的示例，并提出了这样一个案例，即通过Holtfreter，Gerhart和Kirschner，Just的独立烦躁概念已广泛渗透到现代细胞和发育生物学中。Holtfreter的作品和Just的作品之间的联系仍然隐藏。本文提供了显示弱关联的现象的示例，并提出了这样一个案例，即通过Holtfreter，Gerhart和Kirschner，Just的独立烦躁概念已广泛渗透到现代细胞和发育生物学中。Holtfreter的作品和Just的作品之间的联系仍然隐藏。本文举例说明了表现出弱关联的现象，并提出了这样一个案例，即通过Holtfreter，Gerhart和Kirschner，Just的独立烦躁概念已广泛渗透到现代细胞和发育生物学中。