FIG. 3. Studying the mechanisms underlying collective modes of gene expression through quantifying natural phenotypic variation.

(A) Development is thought to be canalised, implying that embryos robustly follow a typical wild type trajectory (black). Typically, the tools of molecular biology used to study development produce perturbations that are strong enough to kick the system far from it’s canalised trajectory. (B) Even though development is canalised, each embryo will follow a unique trajectory, slightly deviating from the average. Taking a slice at a specific time point along the developmental trajectory, there exists a high dimensional space of variation that embryos can explore.