Abstract

Much progress has been made recently in our understanding of how genes control patterns of cell types with in an organism during its development. However, the link between this process of patterning and growth of multicellular shapes and forms is much less well understood. Bridging this gap requires a quantitative understanding of how genes modify growth of multicellular tissues in 3D space at multiple scales. We have been addressing this problem using a combination of genetic, morphological, computational and imaging approaches. The results provide new insights into how genes interact with patterns of growth at various scales to modify shape. Through this process it is possible to generate forms that would be the envy of an origami expert but it is all done with no hands.