King's College London

Morphogenesis is extremely diverse, but its systematic quantification to compare phenotypes is possible by quantifying the underlying cell behaviours. These are limited and definable and consist of cell proliferation, orientation of cell division, cell rearrangement, directional matrix production, cell addition/subtraction and cell size/shape change. While minor variations in these categories are possible, in sum, they capture all possible morphogenetic behaviours. This article summarises these processes, discusses their measurement and highlights some salient examples.