The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis

"The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" is an article that the English mathematician Alan Turing wrote in 1952.^[1] It describes how patterns in nature, such as stripes and spirals, can arise naturally from a homogeneous, uniform state. The theory, which can be called a reaction–diffusion theory of morphogenesis, has become a basic model in theoretical biology.^[2] Such patterns have come to be known as Turing patterns. For example, it has been postulated that the protein VEGFC can form Turing patterns to govern the formation of lymphatic vessels in the zebrafish embryo.^[3]