Biological development is often described as a dynamic, emergent process. This is evident across a variety of phenomena, from the temporal organization of cell types in the embryo to compounding trends that affect large-scale differentiation. To better understand this, we propose combining quantitative investigations of biological development with theory-building techniques. This provides an alternative to the gene-centric view of development: namely, the view that developmental genes and their expression determine the complexity of the developmental phenotype. Using the model system Caenorhabditis elegans, we examine time-dependent properties of the embryonic phenotype and utilize the unique life-history properties to demonstrate how these emergent properties can be linked together by data analysis and theory-building. We also focus on embryogenetic differentiation processes, and how terminally-differentiated cells contribute to structure and function of the adult phenotype. Examining embryogenetic dynamics from 200 to 400 min post-fertilization provides basic quantitative information on developmental tempo and process. To summarize, theory construction techniques are summarized and proposed as a way to rigorously interpret our data. Our proposed approach to a formal data representation that can provide critical links across life-history, anatomy and function.

生物发育通常被描述为一个动态的、突发的过程。这在各种现象中都很明显，从胚胎中细胞类型的时间组织到影响大规模分化的复合趋势。为了更好地理解这一点，我们建议将生物发育的定量研究与理论构建技术相结合。这为以基因为中心的发展观提供了另一种选择：即发育基因及其表达决定发育表型复杂性的观点。使用模型系统秀丽隐杆线虫，我们检查了胚胎表型的时间依赖性特性，并利用独特的生活史特性来证明这些新兴特性如何通过数据分析和理论构建联系在一起。我们还关注胚胎发生分化过程，以及终末分化细胞如何影响成体表型的结构和功能。检查受精后 200 至 400 分钟的胚胎发生动力学，可提供有关发育节奏和过程的基本定量信息。总而言之，总结并提出了理论构建技术，作为一种严格解释我们数据的方法。我们提出的正式数据表示方法可以提供跨生活史、解剖学和功能的关键链接。