BIOLOGICAL DESIGN AND BIOLOGICAL FAILURE

➢ Fatigue fracture- experienced by bones caused by prolonged or heavy use.

➢ Load fracture- experienced by bones when they are loaded asymmetrically caused by uneven load
and weight not centered.

Biological design of:

A. Bones: composite material consisting of several substances with different mechanical parts.
Collagen fibers and hydroxyapatite crystals are the main materials of the bone matrix. Internal
bone tissue consists of areas of compact bone and spongy bone.
B. Teeth: consist of an outer layer called the enamel made of pure ceramic and a calcium phosphate
mineral called the hydroxyapatite; and an inner layer called the dentin made of hydroxyapatite and
40% of the protein called collagen.
This biological design of teeth helps deflect a full force that may cause a spread of a crack.
Note: According to Wolff's law, bone responds dynamically to adapt physiologically to changing stress.
Remodeling of bone occurs in proportion to the mechanical demands placed upon it.
Note: Bones are less able to withstand tensile forces than they can on compressive forces.
Adaptive remodeling entails thickening along the wall experiencing compression.
➢ Lacunae- spaces within the calcium matrix of a bone that either flatten or become round depending
on the force acted upon it.
Piezoelectricity – low level electric charges.

TISSUE RESPONSE TO MECHANICAL STRESS

Terms:
1. Atrophy: a condition in which living tissues undergo a decrease in prominence due to it being
unstressed.
2. Hypertrophy: a condition in which tissues experience an increase in prominence due to an increase
in stress.
3. Hyperplasia: Cell division and proliferation under stress.
4. Metaplasia: a change of tissue from one type to another (often pathological)
NOTE: The response of bone to mechanical stress depends upon the force duration. Atrophy will
continue and bone tissue is lost if the bone experiences continuous pressure. Absence in forces on the
other hand, thins bone density.
For example, people restricting to prolonged bed rest without exercise show signs of osteoporosis.
NOTE: Intermittent stress stimulates bone deposition or hypertrophy.

Environmental influences that alter or enhance the basic shape of bone set down by genetic program:
1. Infectious disease
2. Nutrition
3. Hormones
4. Mechanical stress
 BIOPHYSICS & OTHER PHYSICAL PROCESSES
➢ Biophysics- concerned with principles of energy exchange and the significance of these principles for
living organisms
Pressures and Partial Pressures:
Air is a mixture of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and the remaining percentage consists of carbon dioxide
and other trace elements.

Partial pressures of:

o Oxygen: 21,210Pa
o Nitrogen: 78,780Pa
o Other gasses: 1,010Pa
o Total air pressure: 101,000Pa at sea level

EXCHANGE:
 Concurrent exchange- same direction in flow
 Countercurrent exchange- opposite direction in flow (heat transfer is more efficient)
NOTE: Respiration in many fishes is characterized by countercurrent exchange. Water high in oxygen
flows across the gills, which contain blood capillaries low in oxygen flowing in the opposite direction.
 Crosscurrent exchange –

OPTICS:
Types of vision:
1. Monocular Vision- visual fields DO NOT overlap
2. Binocular Vision- visual fields OVERLAP.
NOTE: Humans have 140 degrees of binocular vision and 30 degrees of monocular vision creating a
stereoscopic image when combined.
 Parallax – the slightly different views one gets of a distant object when it is viewed from two
different points
 Accommodation - sharp focusing of a visual image upon the retina
 Hyperopia - farsightedness. Occurs when the image being focused by the eye falls behind the retina.
 Myopia - nearsightedness. Occurs when an image focused by the eye falls in front of the retina.

- Lens and Cornea - important in focusing light. Their job is considerably affected by the refractive
index of the media through which light passes

Relationship among length, area, and volume

- If shape remains constant but body size changes, the relationship between length, area, surface area,
mass and volume change.
Surface Area
- Efficient exchange of gas, oxygen, and carbon dioxide depends upon the available surface area
- Increase surface in proportion to volume
Relationship between metabolism and body size
- As body size increases, oxygen consumption per unit of body mass decreases
- Metabolism per gram is less large for a large animal
- Small animals operate at a higher metabolic rates so they must consume more energy to maintain their
temperature
- Heat loss is proportional to surface area
- Heat generation is proportional to volume
Volume and Mass
- In terrestrial vertebrates, limb strength is proportional to limb cross-sectional area while body mass
increases with volume
- A tenfold increase in diameter results in 1,000 fold rise in mass but only 100- fold rise in limb strength
- Without adjustments, weight- bearing bones can’t keep pace with mass growth, making gravity more
impactful for large animals compared to small ones
SHAPE
- To remain functionally balanced, animals must have a design that can be altered as its length, area and
mass grow at different rates.
ALLOMETRY
- Change in shape in correlation with a change in size
TORQUES AND LEVERS
- Muscles generate force, skeletal muscles apply these forces
Medial gluteus and semimembranosus - make different contributions to force or to speed output
Low gear muscles - during acceleration
High gear muscles - velocity of the limb
Environment of habitat
- Air and water differ in viscosity but place similar physical demands on animals,
- As fluids move past an animal’s surface, it creates a frictional drag, which depends on the fluid’s
viscosity, surface area, texture, and the speed of fluid movement relative to the surface

Changes in the relationship among length, surface, and volume factors affecting size
1. Strength
2. Diffusion
3. Movement
4. Heat exchange
5. Maximum size

Bone muscle Lever System

1. First class lever (tilting of the head)
2. Second class lever ( raising heel off the ground)
3. Third class lever ( flexing of elbow)
 DEVELOPMENT OF CHORDATES

Egg types

➢ Amount of yolk in the ovum varies

 Effect on the cleavage patterns
1. Microlecithal – sparse amount of yolk
Amphioxus and eutherian mammals
2. Mesolecithal – moderate amount of yolk
Amphibians, lampreys and some fishes
3. Macrolecithal – enormous amount of yolk
Elasmobranchs, teleost fishes, reptiles and birds
& monotremes

➢Eggs can also be classified based on the distribution of yolk

A. Isolecithal
 fairly even distribution of yolk
B. Telolecithal
 Uneven distribution of yolk in ovum
 Brings about egg polarity
Animal pole – nucleus resides
Vegetal pole – most of the yolk resides
VITELLOGENIN
o Yolk protein precursor
o Formed in the liver & gets accumulated in the ovum while still in the
ovary
o In the ovum, it is transformed into yolk platelets – storage packets of
nutrients

o HOLOBLASTIC – mitotic planes passing through the entire embryo

o MEROBLASTIC – mitotic planes not completing its passage through the embryo
Only a small portion of the cytoplasm is cleaved

CLEAVAGE PATTERNS
Mitotic cell divisions that follows fertilization and
produces a multicellular blastula

- Reptiles/birds & mammals – meroblastic (discoidal

is an extreme case of meroblastic cleavage)
- Reptiles and birds – flattened blastoderm

CLEAVAGE PATTERNS IN FISHES

o Gars and bowfin fishes
o Holoblastic cleavage
o Blastoderm
o Cap of cells arched over a small blastocoel

GASTRULATION AND NEUROLATION

➢ Gastrulation – a process by which the embryo forms a distinct endodermal tube that constitutes the
early gut
cleavage is characterized by cell division; gastrulation is characterized by rearrangement of cells
➢ Neurulation – The process of forming an ectodermal tube, the neural tube. This tube is a forerunner
of the central nervous system.

GASTRULATION AND NEURULATION in FISHES

o Patterns of gastrulation are varied in fishes
o Lampreys and primitive bony fishes
o Gastrulation is marked by appearance of the indentation,
of which becomes the dorsal lip of the blastopore
o Dorsal lip of the blastopore is an important organizing
site of the embryo
o Coelom is enterocoelic
o Teleost fishes and sharks
o Flattened blastoderm
o Endomesoderm is continuous with the blastoderm
 GASTRULATION AND NEURULATION in AMPHIBIANS
Superficial indentation marks the beginning of gastrulation
Establishes the dorsal lip of the blastopore
3 major cell rearrangement occurs:
1. Epiboly – movement of surface cells toward the blastopore
from all directions
2. Involution – cells turning inward entering the blastopore
3. Entering cells spread inside the embryo taking up specific
sites Cells entering become part of the endoderm and
mesoderm surrounding the gastrocoel.

GASTRULATION AND NEURULATION in AMNIOTES

In amniotes, the fertilized egg does not directly result in an embryo. Instead, the embryo emerges as a
distinct population of cells within the cleaving egg. The remainder of the cells produced contribute to
the extraembryonic membranes. These membranes support the embryo and its nutritional and
respiratory needs, and in amniotes, hold the embryo in a water environment

GASTRULATION AND NEURULATION in BIRDS

* Onset of gastrulation is the appearance of the primitive
streak

Cleavage, gastrulation & neurulation in mammals

In amniotes, the fertilized egg does not directly result in an embryo. Instead, the embryo emerges as a
distinct population of cells within the cleaving egg. The remainder of the cells produced contribute to
the extraembryonic membranes. These membranes support the embryo and its nutritional and
respiratory needs, and in amniotes, hold the embryo in a water environment
Cleavage, gastrulation & neurulation in MAMMALS
Monotremes Gastrulation, like cleavage, is quite different in the three living groups of mammals. In
monotremes, as in reptiles, gastrulation involves a blastodisc atop a large yolk mass
Marsupials In marsupials, the blastocyst is composed of a single layer of protodermal cells spread
around the inside wall of the zona pellucida. The marsupial blastocyst is distinct among mammals,
forming neither a blastodisc like monotremes nor an inner cell mass like eutherians.
Eutherians, the blastocyst is composed of two distinct populations of cells at the end of cleavage, an
outer trophoblast and an inner cell mass.
ORGANOGENESIS – By the end of neurulation, several major reorganizations of the embryo have been
accomplished
o First, polarity based on the animal-vegetal pole axis of the egg has been superseded by bilateral
symmetry based on an anterior-posterior axis of the emerging embryonic body.
o Second, the three primary germ layers have been delineated: ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm.
o Third, the three germ layers become strategically positioned next to one another so that they can
mutually interact during organogenesis, the differentiation of organs from tissues.
HISTOGENESIS
o Epithelial membranes cover surfaces or line body cavities, ducts, and lumina of vessels.
o Connective tissues generally include bone, cartilage, fibrous connective tissue, adipose tissue, and
blood.

KEY POINTS: This increase of cellular diversity is termed differentiation. As cells differentiate, they also
undergo major displacements within the embryo, eventually taking up positions where they form the
basic organs and body configuration of the embryo, which will be the shape of the basic adult built on
this embryonic plan. During gastrulation and neurulation, the basic germ layers—ectoderm, mesoderm,
endoderm— become delineated through specific morphogenetic processes such as surface spreading
(epiboly), inward spreading (involution), infolding (invagination), and/or splitting (delamination) of
sheets of cells. The variation in vertebrate embryos, especially during gastrulation and neurulation, is
often attributed to accommodation to the relative amounts of stored yolk around which morphogenetic
processes build the early embryonic body.

MATURATION

 METAMORPHOSIS
A radical and abrupt postembryonic change in structure to become an adult.
In vertebrates lacking metamorphosis, the newborn still undergoes a period of maturation during which
it develops from a juvenile to adult (reproductive stage)

 HETEROCHRONY
can be defined as “change to the timing or rate of developmental events, relative to the same events in
the ancestor” (Alberch et al. 1979; McKinney and McNamara 1991).

In paedomorphosis (meaning “child” and “form”), embryonic or juvenile characteristics of ancestors

appear in the adults of descendants
In peramorphosis (meaning “beyond” and “form”), the adult characters of ancestors, exaggerated or
extended in shape, appear in adults of descendants.

***Paedomorphosis and peramorphosis are not evolutionary processes in themselves but are
descriptive terms that describe the appearance of the descendant morphology.