E. E. Just's broad, yet hidden, influence on modern cell and developmental biology

• Published in: Molecular reproduction and development Vol. 87; no. 3; pp. 380 - 391
• Main Author: Byrnes, W. Malcolm
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-03-2020
• Subjects: Animals; Cell Biology - history; Developmental biology; Developmental Biology - history; embryonic induction; Embryonic Induction - physiology; Embryos; Ernest Everett Just; facilitated variation; Female; Fertilization; history of biology; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; independent irritability; Johannes Holtfreter; Male; Oocytes - physiology; Parthenogenesis; Polyploidy; Sperm-Ovum Interactions - physiology; Spermatozoa - physiology; weak linkage; history of biology; Johannes Holtfreter; embryonic induction; facilitated variation; weak linkage; Ernest Everett Just; independent irritability
• ISSN: 1040-452X; 1098-2795
• DOI: 10.1002/mrd.23270

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.
This paper attempts to show that Just's concept of the independent irritability of cells, which arose out of his discovery of the fast block to polyspermy 100 years ago, has had a broad, yet hidden, impact on modern cell and developmental biology.