2017/11/28 by Kenneth D. Irvine, Boris I. Shraiman · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · #Hippo pathway signaling and YAP/TAZ #Plant Molecular Biology Research #Plant responses to water stress #Biology #Development studies #Control (management) #Engineering ethics #Economic growth #Management #Engineering
paper · doi:10.1242/dev.151902
openalex publication_date 2017/11/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
, D'Arcy Thompson discussed the necessity of a physical and mathematical approach to understanding the relationship between growth and form. The past century has seen extraordinary advances in our understanding of biological components and processes contributing to organismal morphogenesis, but the mathematical and physical principles involved have not received comparable attention. The most obvious entry of physics into morphogenesis is via tissue mechanics. In this Review, we discuss the fundamental role of mechanical interactions between cells induced by growth in shaping a tissue. Non-uniform growth can lead to accumulation of mechanical stress, which in the context of two-dimensional sheets of tissue can specify the shape it assumes in three dimensions. A special class of growth patterns - conformal growth - does not lead to the accumulation of stress and can generate a rich variety of planar tissue shapes. Conversely, mechanical stress can provide a regulatory feedback signal into the growth control circuit. Both theory and experiment support a key role for mechanical interactions in shaping tissues and, via mechanical feedback, controlling epithelial growth.