The Birth of Morphomechanics

Abstract—At the early 1970s, in the USSR, L.V. Beloussov and his colleagues from Moscow State University put forward a hypothesis about the possible role of mechanical forces and stresses in the organization of developing living systems. The authors discovered stage-specific patterns of mechanical stresses during amphibian embryonic development and showed that mechanical stresses are necessary for the organization of morphogenesis and cellular differentiation. As a result of the long-term work of Moscow embryologists, morphomechanics, new interdisciplinary science at the intersection of developmental biology and mechanics, was born. In the 21st century, mechanisms of mechano-dependent gene expression, cellular and nuclear mechanotransduction are intensively studied. The idea of the organizing role of mechanical forces and stresses in living systems remains very relevant.