Trans-scale mechanotransductive cascade of biochemical and biomechanical patterning in embryonic development: the light side of the force

Embryonic development is made of complex tissue shape changes and cell differentiation tissue patterning. Both types of morphogenetic processes, respectively biomechanical and biochemical in nature, were historically long considered as disconnected. Evidences of the biochemical patterning control of morphogenesis accumulated during the last 3 decades. Recently, new data revealed reversal mechanotransductive feedback demonstrating the strong coupling between embryonic biomechanical and biochemical patterning. Here we will review the findings of the emerging field of mechanotransduction in animal developmental biology and its most recent advancements. We will see how such mechanotransductive cascade of biochemical and mechanical patterning events ensures trans-scale direct cues of co-regulation of the microscopic biomolecular activities with the macroscopic morphological patterning. Mechanotransduction regulates many aspects of embryonic development including efficient collective cell behaviour, distant tissues morphogenesis coordination, and the robust coordination of tissue shape morphogenesis with differentiation.