Morphogenesis as a macroscopic self-organizing process

We start from reviewing different epistemological constructions used for explaining morphogenesis. Among them, we explore the explanatory power of a law-centered approach which includes top-down causation and the basic concepts of a self-organization theory. Within such a framework, we discuss the morphomechanical models based upon the presumption of feedbacks between mechanical stresses imposed onto a given embryo part from outside and those generated within the latter as a kind of active response. A number of elementary morphogenetic events demonstrating that these feedbacks are directed towards hyper-restoration (restoration with an overshoot) of the initial state of mechanical stresses are described. Moreover, we show that these reactions are bound together into the larger scale feedbacks. That permits to suggest a reconstruction of morphogenetic successions in early Metazoan development concentrated around two main archetypes distinguished by the blastopores geometry. The perspectives of applying the same approach to cell differentiation are outlined. By discussing the problem of positional information we suggest that the developmental pathway of a given embryo part depends upon its preceded deformations and the corresponding mechanical stresses rather than upon its static position at any moment of development.