New studies of metabolic reactions and networks in embryos are making important additions to regulatory models of development, so far dominated by genes and signals. Metabolic control of development is not a new idea and can be traced back to Joseph Needham's 'Chemical Embryology', published in the 1930s. Even though Needham's ideas fell by the wayside with the advent of genetic studies of embryogenesis, they demonstrated that embryos provide convenient models for addressing fundamental questions in biochemistry and are now experiencing a comeback, enabled by the powerful merger of detailed mechanistic studies and systems-level techniques. Here we review recent results from studies that quantified the energy budget of embryogenesis in Drosophila and started to untangle the intricate connections between core anabolic processes and developmental transitions. Dynamic coordination of metabolic, genetic, and signaling networks appears to be essential for seamless progression of development.

对胚胎代谢反应和网络的新研究正在对迄今为止由基因和信号主导的发育调控模型进行重要补充。发育的代谢控制并不是一个新想法，可以追溯到 Joseph Needham 于 20 世纪 30 年代出版的《化学胚胎学》。尽管李约瑟的想法随着胚胎发生遗传学研究的出现而被搁置，但他们证明胚胎为解决生物化学中的基本问题提供了方便的模型，并且由于详细的机制研究和系统级研究的强大结合，现在正在卷土重来。技术。在这里，我们回顾了量化果蝇胚胎发生能量预算的最新研究结果，并开始理清核心合成代谢过程和发育转变之间复杂的联系。代谢、遗传和信号网络的动态协调似乎对于发育的无缝进展至关重要。