TY - JOUR A1 - Gierer, Alfred A1 - Meinhardt, H. T1 - A theory of biological pattern formation N2 - The paper addresses the formation of striking patterns within originally near-homogenous tissue, the process prototypical for embryology, and represented in particularly puristic form by cut sections of hydra regenerating a complete animal with head and foot. Essential requirements are autocatalytic, self-enhancing activation, combined with inhibitory or depletion effects of wider range - “lateral inhibition”. Not only de-novo-pattern formation, but also well known, striking features of developmental regulation such as induction, inhibition, and proportion regulation can be explained on this basis. The theory provides a mathematical recipe for the construction of molecular models with criteria for the necessary non-linear interactions. It has since been widely applied to different developmental processes. KW - pattern formation KW - lateral inhibition KW - autocatalysis KW - hydra regeneration Y1 - 2006 UR - https://edoc.bbaw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/160 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b4360-100751 UR - http://edoc.bbaw.de/oa/articles/reRszqoDHVNo/PDF/23VQhYb8JGA8o.pdf ER -