Development, Growth, and Form in Living Systems

Abstract

Just about everything in the living world grows and all multicellular organisms develop forms. In one way or another development inducing structural organization appears as a general rule of living systems. So the genesis of spatial patterns constitutes a central problem in theoretical biology. Biological patterns ultimately result from the selective action of genes: (i) genes are activated in a specific spatial and temporal order, (ii) the activation results in a specific structure, (iii) the structure induces cellular organization, (iv) organization manifests itself by the formation and growth of shapes. The authors consider a hypothetical organism specified by a linear array of cells