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Abnormal Organogenesis in the Reproductive System

  • Chapter
Handbook of Teratology

Abstract

The fertilized egg of the human utilizes a program of embryonic differentiation estimated to contain 100,000,000,000 bits of information (yes or no decisions) to attain the chemical constitution of the adult (Dancoff and Quastler, 1953). The information content of a single printed page is about 10,000 bits. Thus, the complexity of the program of human differentiation is equivalent to 10,000,000 printed pages, or the content of a library of considerable size. Yet, it is amazing that errors in readout of this program resulting in teratologic organogenesis are so few. The highest incidence of all malformations reported to occur in man is at most 2 percent of live births.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Teratology Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA

    Allen S. Goldman

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  1. Allen S. Goldman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Children’s Hospital Research Foundation and Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    James G. Wilson

  2. Departments of Biology and Paediatrics, McGill University and The Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Canada

    F. Clarke Fraser

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© 1977 Plenum Press, New York

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Goldman, A.S. (1977). Abnormal Organogenesis in the Reproductive System. In: Wilson, J.G., Fraser, F.C. (eds) Handbook of Teratology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-8933-4_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-8933-4_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-8935-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-8933-4

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