Lev Beloussov

Lomonosov Moscow State University | MSU · Faculty of Biology

This is the second part of a review; it is devoted to the methods of studying ultraweak photon emissions, presents a methodology of biological detection. During the first 25 years of research (1923–1948), almost all experiments in this area were based on biological detection and only the component belonging to the middle ultraviolet region of the s...

Several important morphogenetic processes belong to the category of collective cell movements (CCM), by which we mean coordinated rearrangements of many neighboring cells. The causes of the dynamic order established during CCM are still unclear. We performed statistical studies of rates and angular orientations of cell rearrangements in two kinds o...

Reactions of embryonic tissues to a distributed and concentrated stretching are described and compared with the mechanics of the normal gastrulation movements. A role of mechanically stressed dynamic cell structures in the gastrulation, demarcation of notochord borders and in providing proportionality of the axial rudiments is demonstrated. A morph...

Morphogenesis in living tissues is the paramount example of a time- and space-dependent orchestration of living matter where shape and order emerge from undifferentiated initial conditions. The genes encode the protein expression that eventually drives the emergence of the phenotype, while energy supply and cell-to-cell communication mechanisms are...

The laboratory is engaged in morphomechanics—the study of self-organization of mechanical forces that create the shape and structure of the embryonic primordia. As part of its work, the laboratory described pulsating modes of mechanical stresses in hydroids, identified and mapped mechanical stresses in the tissues of amphibian embryos, and studied...

The presence and morphogenetic role of relatively autonomous pacemakers (“clocks”) during ontogeny is discussed. Although autonomous pacemakers in the strict sense seem nonexistent, the study of temporal processes is of great importance for recognizing the fundamental morphogenetic mechanisms. The most important and insufficiently understood questi...

In this paper we review experimental approaches used in our research group for deforming embryonic tissues in amphibian embryos by relaxing pre-existed tensions, stretching samples in given directions or bending them. In these experiments , owing to the active tissue reactions to changes in mechanical stresses, they change their shapes in predictab...

The first step on the way from chemistry to morphogenesis is the chemo-mechanical transduction that is extensively retarded relaxation of the stored energy onto a small number of selected degrees of freedom. The next level to up is presented by the microtubules and microfilaments-associated supramolecular machines which transform this energy into t...

We start from reviewing several ubiquitous approaches to morphogenesis and argue that for a more adequate presentation of morphogenesis, they should be replaced by explanatory constructions based upon the self-organization theory (SOT). The first step on this way will be in describing morphogenetic events in terms of the symmetry theory, to disting...

This paper reviews the 90 years long controversial history of the so-called “mitogenetic radiation,” the first case of non-chemical distant interactions, reported by Gurwitsch (1923). It was soon described as ultraweak UV, emitted by a number of biological systems, and stimulating mitosis in “competent” (in this sense) cells. In the following 20 ye...

A continuum model of the embryonic epithelial tissue with account for the active deformations and rearrangements of the cells is proposed. The stress tensor is represented as the sum of the stresses undergone by the cell directly and the tensor of active stresses that arise owing to contracting cellular protrusions anchored on the surface of neighb...

Regular patterns of mechanical stresses are perfectly expressed on the macromorphological level in the embryos of all taxonomic groups studied in this respect. Stress patterns are characterized by the topological invariability retained during prolonged time periods and drastically changing in between. After explanting small pieces of embryonic tiss...

This book outlines a unified theory of embryonic development, assuming morphogenesis to be a multi-level process including self-organizing steps while also obeying general laws. It is shown how molecular mechanisms generate mechanical forces, which in the long run lead to morphological changes. Questions such as how stress-mediated feedback acts at...

An attempt is made to reconstruct the natural successions of the developmental events on the basis of a common mechanically based trend. It is formulated in terms of a hyper-restoration (HR) hypothesis claiming that embryonic tissue responds to any external deforming force by generating its own one, directed toward the restoration of the initial st...

The application of the symmetry theory to the principles of individual development is discussed. Reductions of the symmetry order, relations of different structural levels of symmetry and «symmetry exchange» between symmetry transformations, change of free energy, and entropy in the course of real and simulated morphogenesis are considered. The pos...

A fundamental problem of morphogenesis is whether it presents itself as a succession of links that are each driven by its own specific cause-effect relationship, or whether all of the links can be embraced by a common law that is possible to formulate in physical terms. We suggest that a common biophysical background for most, if not all, morphogen...

The aim of this essay is to review up to now scattered data related to the integration of activities of molecular machines into higher level events, providing macroscopic organization of living beings. According to the self-organization theory, one of the main instruments for such integration is enlarging of characteristic times, going as a rule, h...

Active reactions of embryonic tissues to mechanical forces play an important role in morphogenesis. To study these reactions, experimental models that enable to evaluate the applied forces and the deformations of the tissues are required. A model based upon the active intrusion of a living early gastrula Xenopus embryo into a tube half the embryo i...

We start from reviewing different epistemological constructions used for explaining morphogenesis. Among them, we explore the explanatory power of a law-centered approach which includes top-down causation and the basic concepts of a self-organization theory. Within such a framework, we discuss the morphomechanical models based upon the presumption...

We start from demonstrating that macroscopic embryonic “designs” are mechanically stressed and that the formation of embryonic structures of different geometry is owed to the partial and controlled stress relaxation. Next, we suggest a model of morphomechanical feedbacks giving rise to the regular structure of mechanical stress fields (stress hyper...

This is a review of studies on morphogenesis carried out at the Department of Embryology, Moscow State University, over the past 30 years. The main direction of studies has been to reveal and describe the properties of self-organizing fields of mechanical stresses in developing embryos.

The ideographical approach aimed at detecting specific causative relationships within the process of development prevails in modern embryology. The present work considers the possibilities of using the nomothetic approach aimed at putting forward nonspecific general laws based on the general scientific theory of self-organization and can be formula...

Although the folding of epithelial layers is one of the most common morphogenetic events, the underlying mechanisms of this process are still poorly understood. We aimed to determine whether an artificial bending of an embryonic cell sheet, which normally remains flat, is reinforced and stabilized by intrinsic cell transformations. We observed both...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become a powerful tool for imaging biological structures (from single molecules to living cells) and carrying out measurements of their mechanical properties. AFM provides three-dimensional high-resolution images of the studied biological objects in physiological environment. However there are only few AFM investig...

The aim of this essay is to review what we know about the transformation of chemical energy into mechanical, electrical and photonic at the different scales of biological organization. We start from the "classical", short-range mechanoelectrical protein machines emphasizing their capacity to slow down the rate of energy relaxation and to concentrat...

Computer analysis of artificially deformed (stretched or compressed) double explants (sandwiches) of the blastocoel roof (BRs) and suprablastoporal region (SBRs) of African clawed frog Xenopus laevis early gastrula has been performed using frames of time-lapse microfilming. During the first 14 min after cutting off, the velocities and displacement...

With the help of a suction manometric device, the relation between the deformation of Xenonus laevis embryo at the gastrula and neurula stages and the value of the applied force has been studied. Stiffness modules of embryonic tissues were in the order of several dozens of Pascal and they were inversely proportional during deformation from 40 to 20...

We explore the idea that morphogenetical processes may be self-regulated by the biomechanical feedback established between the active stress-generating devices and the passive stresses of stretching and (or) compression, these feedback directed towards hyperrestoration (restoration with overlapping) of the initial stress values. As an example, a st...

Successions of space-temporal structures arisen during development of multicellular organisms are the most regular, complex and reproducible ones among all taking place in the entire nature without a human's intervention. Therefore, the question whether it would be possible to embrace them by a common physicalistic law (nomothetic approach) or they...

Modeling of morphogenesis demonstrates that they form rather wide regions of structural stability and narrow zones of instability in parametric space. Within instability zones, small parameter shifts lead to drastic changes in the morphology of buds. These particular zones are the sources of ontogenetic diversities and represent the reserve for evo...

A model permitting to derive each next embryonic shape from a preceded one is suggested. It implies that each embryonic shape is associated with a definite pattern of mechanical stresses having a tendency to be hyperrestored (restored with an overshoot) after any deviation from the initial value. We describe several morphomechanical feedbacks deduc...

The paper presents the results of statistical evaluation of the changes of cellular apex connections, apical angles, and apical indices of ventral cells of the epiectodermal gastrula of Xenopus during the first four hours after the relaxation of mechanical tension. In the unrelaxed epithelium, an overwhelming majority of cells have three apical con...

The mutual arrangement of neural and mesodermal rudiments in artificially bent double explants of Xenopus laevis suprablastoporal areas was compared with that of intact explants. While some of the bent explants straightened or became spherical, most retained and actively reinforced the imposed curvature, creating folds on their concave sides and ex...

Sandwich explants of the suprablastoporal area of Xenopus early-mid gastrula and same stages of entire embryos were stretched with two needles perpendicular to the direction of natural elongation of the axial rudiments. The changes in the embryonic shape and histological structure were monitored as well as the arrangement of descendants of one of d...

Influence of the relaxation of mechanical tensions upon collective cell movements, shape formation, and expression patterns of tissue-specific genes has been studied in Xenopus laevis embryos. We show that the local relaxation of tensile stresses within the suprablastoporal area (SBA) performed at the early-midgastrula stage leads to a complete arr...

The work of prominent Russian biologist Alexander Gavrilovich Gurwitsch (1874–1954) on the theory of organism development are reviewed. Alexander Gurwitsch introduced the concept of embryonic (morphogenetic, biological, and cellular) field and proposed several revisions of it from 1912 to 1944. Although neither of them can be considered as a final...

A deep (although at the first glance naïve) question which may be addressed to embryonic development is why during this process quite definite and accurately reproduced successions of precise and complicated shapes are taking place, or why, in several cases, the result of development is highly precise in spite of an extensive variability of interme...

Studies of mechanical stresses and mechanical feedback at the cell level are reviewed. It is shown that cells and embryonic tissues respond to external mechanical stresses and can generate such stresses themselves. Regular feedback loops between external (passive) and internal (active) mechanical stresses have been established. They are essential f...

We measured ultraweak emissions of the Xenopus laevis eggs and embryos during normal development and under the influence of stress factors in a spectral range of 250 to 800 nm using a photomultiplier. The registered emissions were analyzed by several basic characteristics: mean intensity, histograms, kurtosis, linear trends, and Fourier spectra. We...

The role of cooperative cell movements has been explored in establishment of regular segregation of the marginal zone of Xenopus laevis embryos into the main axial rudiments: notochord, somites and neural tissue. For this purpose, the following operations were performed at the late blastula-early gastrula stages: (1) isolation of marginal zones, (2...

The role of cooperative cell movements has been explored in establishment of regular segregation of the marginal zone of Xenopus laevis embryos into the main axial rudiments: notochord, somites and neural tissue. For this purpose, the following operations were performed at the late blastula-early gastrula stages: (1) isolation of marginal zones, (2...

Two alternative versions of interpreting the developmental events are discussed. The first of them regards the development as a set of highly specific steps each of them being caused by a unique special force, or an “instruction”. By this version, nothing outside the rigidly determined chain of events is presented, and the ultimate aim of a researc...

An ultraweak photon emission (UWPE) of the living systems, while being registered in certain experimental situations and/or demonstrating some specific populations. To these situations and dynamic properties belong: a degradational UWPE, largely synchronized (rhythmic) UWPE patterns (especially if accompanied sample and its components. We describe...

the realization of biological functions. Its direct involvement in hydrolytic processes in which primary “fuels” are produced, in ATP synthesis and energy gain due to to be one of the major sources of high grade energy – energy of electronic excitation (EEE) generated in the reactions in which active oxygen participates. Due different kinds of chem...

How a developing embryo becomes "informed" about its form?" This problem remains obscure and controversial. We argue that the "information about a form" is distributed throughout three main components: the dynamic laws, the parameters and the initial/boundary conditions. In the absence of a dynamic law two other components are "blind", that is, do...

This study explored the integral intensity, slopes, and dynamics of the spectral gels, dried collagen samples, and collagen fibrils extirpated from rat tails after UV emitted from dry collagen samples are more exponential, whereas water-

Epigenesis in classical embryology is regarded as self-complication of spatial organization of the embryo during its development. The reality of the phenomenon of self-complication at the cellular and supracellular levels has been demonstrated by classical experimental embryology. Today, in light of studies of cell differentiation mechanisms, this...

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Circumferential and radial components of the yolk cell surface movements were measured in the loach embryos at the late blastula stage within 40-50 min after puncture or indentation by an obliquely directed glass rod. The yolk cell surface was preliminarily marked by coal particles. It was shown that even closely located regions of the surface diff...

Albert Harris was educated at The Norfolk Academy, Norfolk, Virginia, USA (1961). He then earned a Batchelor of Arts Degree in Biology from Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania, USA (1965), followed by a Ph.D. in Biology (1971) from Yale University, where his Dissertation Advisor was the great John Phillip Trinkaus. He held a Damon-Runyon Postdoctor...

We, the Guest Editors of this Special Issue of The International Journal of Developmental Biology, are two older embryologists, who are trying to bridge the current chasm between Entwicklungsmechanic, the developmental mechanics of our embryogenesis forefathers, and the modern movement of molecular developmental biology. Our rallying cry is that of...

Morphomechanics is a branch of developmental biology, studying the generation, space-time patterns and morphogenetic role of mechanical stresses (MS) which reside in embryonic tissues. All the morphogenetically active embryonic tissues studied in this respect have been shown to bear substantial mechanical stresses of tension or pressure. MS are ind...

Gastrulation in amphibian embryos is a composition of several differently located morphogenetic movements which are perfectly coordinated with each other both in space and time. We hypothesize that this coordination is mediated by biomechanical interactions between different parts of a gastrulating embryo based upon the tendency of each part to hyp...

Hans Meinhardt received his PhD in physics from the University of Cologne at 1966. For a postdoctoral fellowship, he went to the European High Energy Laboratory CERN in Geneva where he joined a group working on the leptonic decay of the Xi-minus particle. One of his duties was to perform computer simulations to optimize the complex experimental set...

From Mitogenetic Rays to Biophotons.- Photon Sucking as an Essential Principle of Biological Regulation.- Quantum Squeezed State Description of Spectral Decompositions of a Biophoton Signal and the Possibility of Remote Intervention.- Biological Structure as a Converter of Coherent Radiation.- The Oscillation Behavior of the Delayed Luminescence of...

Many important morphogenetic processes that take place in the development of an animal start from the segregation of a homogeneous layer of cells into a different number of the domains of columnar and flattened cells. In many cases, waves of cell shape transformation travel throughout embryonic tissues. A biomechanical model is presented which embr...

Structural rearrangements of the yolk cell surface were studied in loach embryos using SEM and TEM, which take place within 30 min after a point-like puncture at the late blastula stage. The effects of sucking off or addition of a part of yolk, lowered temperature, and absence of Ca2+ on structurization were studied. Around the area of puncture, th...

Structural rearrangements of the yolk cell surface were studied in loach embryos using SEM and TEM, which take place within 30 min after a point-like puncture at the late blastula stage. The effects of sucking off or addition of a part of yolk, lowered temperature, and absence of Ca2+ on structurization were studied. Around the area of puncture, th...

We compared the characteristics of ultraweak emissions from groups of loach embryos of different ages in the presence or absence of optic interaction. The percentage of zero values of emission gradually increased during the first hour of optic interaction. The number and height of rare big pulses estimated by the value of kurtosis increased in para...

We present a biomechanical model of morphogenesis highlighting the extensive formative capacities of stressed networks with a very simple initial geometry. They consist of a restricted number of kinematically independent elements exerting a pressure to each other and increasing thus the local curvatures. The pressure is applied as a series of perio...

Residual deformation of fragments of the embryonic tissues preserved after relaxation of the stretching force serve as a criterion of active redistribution of their cells caused by this stretching. We measured residual deformations of the Xenopus laevis ventral and dorsal ectoderm at the early gastrula and lateral ectoderm at the late gastrula-earl...

Residual deformation of fragments of the embryonic tissues preserved after relaxation of the stretching force serve as a criterion of active redistribution of their cells caused by this stretching. We measured residual deformations of the Xenopus laevis ventral and dorsal ectoderm at the early gastrula and lateral ectoderm at the late gastrula-earl...

We propose a model which imitates the morphogenesis of several species of the hydroid polyps and permits the derivation of the geometry (surface curvature) of each developmental stage from that of a preceding stage. The model is based upon two experimentally verified assumptions. First, neighboring cells are assumed to compress each other laterally...

The optical (non-substantial) interactions between various biological samples have been evident in a number of cases mainly by the effects on their functional activity and developmental patterns. However, the mechanisms of these interactions have remained obscure. Effect of optical interaction has been observed on the intensity and Fourier patterns...

A model is proposed which imitates the morphogenesis of several species of the lower invertebrate animals, the hydroid polyps and permits the derivation of the geometry (surface curvature) of each developmental stage from that of the preceding stage. The model is based upon two experimentally verified assumptions. First, neighbouring cells are assu...

A lecture course on morphogenesis for fourth-year Moscow State University Specialist Diploma students specializing in embryology is described. The main goal of the course is to give the students an extensive theoretical background based on the tenets of the modern theory of Self-Organization and to show them how important this theory is for the pro...

Any reactions of the living systems are to a great extent context-dependent. Meanwhile, the biological essence of a "context" remains to be obscure. We suggest that it may be based upon an ensemble of molecular-supramolecular oscillators, which have different characteristic times. For testing this hypothesis, we applied the Fourier statistics to th...

We compared the characteristics of ultraweak emissions from groups of loach embryos of different ages in the presence or absence of optic interaction. The percentage of zero values of emission gradually increased during the first hour of optic interaction. The number and height of rare big pulses estimated by the value of kurtosis increased in para...

We recorded the fluctuations of the dark current in two photomultipliers located 2000 km from each other in different time zones (in International Institute of Biophysics (Neuss, Germany) and in Moscow State University(Moscow, Russia)). We studied the fluctuations by distribution of their amplitudes (histograms of data). Comparison of the histogram...

We start by analyzing two alternative approaches which can be used for explaining natural events: a physicalistic one, directed towards formulation of the overall laws which should be as non-specific as possible, and an “instructivistic” one, which aim is to create a list of as specific as possible “instructions”. We discuss whose one of them is mo...

Ultraweak emissions of groups comprising several dozens of unfertilized and fertilized loach eggs, embryos, larvae, and their egg envelopes were measured on a photomultiplier tube. The envelopes absorbed the light from external sources but readily gave it back in the absence of embryos. We carried out statistical and frequency-amplitude analyses of...

Ultraweak emissions of groups comprising several dozens of unfertilized and fertilized loach eggs, embryos, larvae, and their egg envelopes were measured on a photomultiplier tube. The envelopes absorbed the light from external sources but readily gave it back in the absence of embryos. We carried out statistical and frequency-amplitude analyses of...