Marine Biology Connected to Developmental Biology, Eco-Devo Biology, Evolutionary Biology, and Evolutionary Bioethics: A Mini Review of Literature by and about Ernest Everett Just

Reviewing literature by and about marine egg cell biologist Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) [1] shows that marine biology is connected to developmental biology, ecological developmental (eco-devo) biology, evolutionary biology, and evolutionary bioethics.

E. E. Just’s accomplishments in biology are celebrated in Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just (1983) by MIT historian of science Kenneth R. Manning, and in Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just (2018) by Mélina Mangal [2]. Also, in 1996 the US Postal Service issued a 32 cent Black Heritage postage stamp honoring “Ernest E. Just, Biologist.”

E. E. Just taught biology at Howard University in Washington DC USA from 1909 to 1941, and he spent most summers doing research at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole. Just was first to observe that when the fertilizing spermatozoon penetrates the egg cell surface, a “wave of negativity” radiates from the point of penetration and sweeps around the cell surface, thereby repulsing all other sperm. During the 1920s and 1930s, Just became “the [original italics on the] current authority on fertilization” with a national and international reputation [3]. He wrote more than 70 published research articles and co-authored with Frank R. Lillie the chapter on “Fertilization” in Cowdry’s 1924 General Cytology: A Textbook of Cellular Structure and Function for Students of Biology and Medicine [3,4].

By teaching (first MBL researchers, then others) Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Animals [5],

By innovative fund-seeking and promoting research by women [3,6], and

By describing marine egg cell surface blocks to polyspermy, fertilization, cell-division, cell cleavage and differentiation, and early embryo development [1,3,7-23] culminating in The Biology of the Cell Surface [24].

In “Ernest Everett Just, PhD: Pioneer in Ecological Developmental (Eco-Devo) Biology” (2013) Katelyn M. Williams [24] and others offer the following Abstract:

[Abstract- “Ernest Everett Just, a pioneering American biologist, discovered the fundamental role of the environment in the development of embryos. His work led to the creation of the area of biology known as ecological developmental (Eco- Devo) biology. However, both his work and the context of his scientific contributions are not widely known. His work covered a diversity of fields of biology, including marine biology, cytology, and parthogenesis (asexual reproduction where growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization). His findings provided important concepts in developmental biology that are used to this day. Specifically, he demonstrated the importance of the cellular cytoplasm and ectoplasm, in addition to the nucleus, in determining how development occurs in embryos. His worked was unique for its use of in vivo conditions using a variety of marine organisms. His publications on the “Basic Methods for Experiments on Eggs of Marine Mammals” in 1922 [5] and “The Biology of the Cell Surface” in 1939 are still regarded as two of the most comprehensive reviews in cell biology. In this manuscript we present Dr. Just’s childhood in Charleston, SC, unlikely attendance and success at Dartmouth College, and his groundbreaking work, which was developed at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, Europe, and Howard University.”]

Beyond developmental biology and eco-devo biology, The Biology of the Cell Surface [24] included a brief deliberation on cell surface co-operative behavior and theory of evolution.

This brief deliberation became a fully developed unpublished 1941 book manuscript—The Origin of Man’s Ethical Behavior (first published in 2020) [25] co-authored by Ernest Everett Just and Hedwig Schnetzler Just. In the opening chapter “The Problem Stated,” Just and Just reject the idea that theory of ethics (moral theory) should be restricted to religion and non-scientific philosophy. They say, “… we intend to treat ethics as a problem in biology … It is within the field of biology, then, that we locate human ethics, or better to say, man’s ethical behavior” (Just and Just 1941: 2-3 [also 4, 91, 146]) [26,27]. According to Just and Just, cooperative behavior, which is essential to fertilization and embryo development, is essential to evolution. Developmental biology and evolutionary biology are governed by a comprehensive “law of environmental dependence” (dependence upon cooperative interactivity with a living environment). In tandem with the evolution of biophysical structures and functions, ethical behavior “evolved” from our “very most primitive fore-runner” (Just and Just 1941: 12 [also 17]) [27]. From cells to humans, the origin and evolution of cooperative behavior yields human capacity for evolving ethical behavior.

Without using the term bio-ethics or bioethics, Just and Just tied evolutionary biology to ethics, thereby advancing “evolutionary bioethics” (Walker) [28,29].

1. Byrnes WM, Eckberg WR (2006) Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941) An early ecological developmental biologist. Developmental Biology 296(1): 1-11.
2. Mélina M, Uribe L (2018) Vast wonder of the world: Biologist Ernest Everett Just. Millbrook Press, USA, pp. 1-38.
3. Kenneth RM (1983) Black apollo of science: The life of Ernest Everett Just. Oxford University Press, USA, pp. 1-416.
4. Kenneth RM (2009) Reflections on E. E. Just, Black Apollo of Science, and the experiences of African American Scientists. Molecular Reproduction and Development 76(10): 897-902.
5. Just EE (1939b) Basic methods for experiments on eggs of marine animals. Philadelpia: P. Blakiston’s Son Publishers, USA.
6. Lillie RJ (2021) Black Apollo of science: The life of Ernest Everett Just - Summarizing timeline, sumitography and concept poster. Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events, SMU Scholar, pp. 1-32.
7. Just EE (1919a) The fertilization reaction in Echinarachnius parma: I. Cortical response of the egg to insemination. Biological Bulletin 36(1): 1-10.
8. Just EE (1919b) The fertilization reaction in Echinarachnius parma: II. The role of fertilizing in straight and cross fertilization. The Biological Bulletin 36(1): 11-38.
9. Just EE (1919c) The fertilization reaction in Echinarachnius parma: III. The nature of the activation of the egg by butyric acid. Biological Bulletin 36(1): 39-53.
10. Just EE (1920) The fertilization-reaction in Echinarachnius parma: IV. A further analysis of the nature of butyric acid activation. Biological Bulletin 39(5): 280-305.
11. Just EE (1921) The susceptibility of the inseminated egg to hypotonic seawater. A contribution to the analysis of the fertilization-reaction. Anatomical Record 20: 225-227.
12. Just EE (1922a) Initiation of development in the egg of Arbacia: I. Effect of hypertonic sea-water in producing membrane separation, cleavage, and top-swimming plutei. Biological Bulletin 43(6): 384-400.
13. Just EE (1922b) Initiation of development in the egg of Arbacia: II. Fertilization of eggs in various stages of artificially induced mitosis. Biological Bulletin 43(6): 401-410.
14. Just EE (1922c) Initiation of development in the egg of Arbacia: III. The effect of Arbacia blood on the fertilization-reaction. Biological Bulletin 43: 1-14.
15. Just EE (1932) On the Origin of Mutations. American Naturalist 66(702): 61-74.
16. Just EE (1933) Cortical cytoplasm and evolution. American Naturalist 67(708): 20-29.
17. Just EE (1937) The significance of experimental parthenogenesis for the cell-biology of to-day. Cytologia, Fujii Jubilaei, pp. 540-550.
18. Byrnes WM (2009) Ernest Everett Just, Johannes Holtfreter, and the origin of certain concepts in embryo morphogenesis. Molecular Reproduction & Development 76(10): 912-921.
19. Byrnes WM (2010) Ernest Everett Just: Experimental biologist par excellence. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
20. Byrnes WM (2013) The Genius of Ernest Everett Just. Howard University Graduate School (HUGS) Research Magazine and Graduate School Research Archive (2): 1-6.
21. Byrnes WM (2019) E. E. Just's broad, yet hidden, influence on modern cell and developmental biology. Molecular Reproduction and Development 87(3): 380-391.
22. Byrnes WM, Newman SA (2014) Ernest Everett Just: Egg and embryo as excitable systems. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B, Molecular and Developmental Evolution 322(4): 191-201.
23. Stuart AN (2013) Evolution is not mainly a matter of genes. In: Sheldon Krimsky, Jeremy Gruber (eds.), Genetic explanations: Sense and nonsense. Harvard University Press, USA, pp. 288-290.
24. Just EE (1939a) The biology of the cell surface. Philadelphia: Blakiston’s Son Publishers, USA.
25. Theodore Jr. W (2020) The bioethical significance of ‘The Origin of Man’s Ethical Behavior’ (October 1941, unpublished) by Ernest Everett Just and Hedwig Anna Schnetzler Just. Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science 18(1): 1-3.
26. Katelyn MW, Wilson BA, O’Connor WG, Willis MS (2013) Ernest Everett Just, PhD: Pioneer in Ecological Developmental (Eco-Devo) Biology. Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science 11(1): 1-5.
27. Just EE, Hedwig SJ (1941) The origin of man’s ethical behavior. Independently Published, pp. 1-278.
28. Just EE (1940) Unsolved problems of general biology. Physiological Zoology 13(2): 123-142.
29. Theodore Jr. W (2021) Reviewing Ernest Everett Just’s biology of the cell surface (1939) and related literature, plus annotated references, hereby advancing evolutionary biology and evolutionary bioethics. SCIREA Journal of Health 8(1): 123-144.