title: In pursuit of the whole hypha.
abstract: We know organisms first of all by their forms. Rabbit and carrot, Neurospora, and Paramecium represent particular shapes and structures, patterns in space and time. Each pattern integrates innumerable molecules into a coherent whole, reproduces itself from one generation to the next, and may persist in this manner for millions of years. In this lecture, I shall discuss efforts to render a dynamic and causal account of biological morphogenesis, using fungal hyphae as a concrete exemplar. Molecular structures and interactions are necessary but not sufficient to specify patterns on a scale three to five orders of magnitude larger. The search for alternatives leads to the importation of the concept of dynamic fields, exemplified by the proposal of Bartnicki-Garcia and Gierz that apical growth and morphogenesis report the operation of a mobile vesicle-supply center. Application of field theories to biological morphogenesis is still at an early stage, but is necessary in order to resolve the paradoxical relationship between genes and form.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1870, USA.
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Harold
mesh_terms: D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism; D005658:Fungi / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009024:Morphogenesis