Self-organization and Genomic Causality in Models of Morphogenesis

The debate about what causes the generation of form and structure in embryological development goes back to antiquity. Most recently it has focused on the divergent views as to whether the generation of patterns and form in development is a largely selforganized process or is mainly determined by the genome, in particular, complex developmental gene regulatory processes.

I will present and analyze physical-chemical models of self-organization and genome-based models of morphogenesis in the past and today, indicate the insufficiency of purely mathematical models, and propose an integration of the opposing poles of selforganization and genomic causality.