Mechanical forces generated by living cells at the molecular level propagate to the cellular and organismal level and have profound consequences for embryogenesis. A direct result of force application is movement, as occurs in chromosome separation, cell migration, or tissue folding. A less direct, but equally important effect of force, is the activation of mechanosensitive signaling, which allows cells to probe their mechanical surrounding and communicate with each other over short and long distances. In this review, we focus on forces as a means of conveying information and affecting cell behavior during embryogenesis. We discuss four developmental processes that demonstrate the involvement of force in cell fate determination, growth, morphogenesis, and organogenesis, in a variety of model organisms. Finally, a generalizable pathway of mechanosensing and mechanotransduction in vivo is described, and we highlight similarities between morphogens and forces in patterning of embryos.

活细胞在分子水平上产生的机械力传播到细胞和机体水平，并对胚胎发生产生深远的影响。施加力的直接结果是运动，如染色体分离，细胞迁移或组织折叠中发生的运动。机械力信号的激活是一种不太直接但同样重要的作用，它可以使细胞探测其机械周围环境并在短距离和长距离内彼此通信。在这篇综述中，我们将重点放在力量上，作为在胚胎发生过程中传达信息和影响细胞行为的一种手段。我们讨论了四个发展过程，这些过程证明了力在各种模型生物中参与细胞命运确定，生长，形态发生和器官发生的过程。最后，体内 进行了描述，并且我们着重说明了形态发生子和胚胎构图力之间的相似性。