International Center for Mathematical Modeling, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.
Biosystems. 2020 Dec;198:104279. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104279. Epub 2020 Oct 24.
The celebrated 1917 work "On Growth and Form" of D'Arcy W. Thompson has established a landmark for mathematical biology, introducing new perspectives of study and research in biology, providing mathematical methods to morphology of biological systems. In this brief historical essay, we recall the novelties and relevance of the work from a retrospective stance, above all pointing out the crucial role played by it in the dawning of epigenetic standpoint. The role of underlying epigenetic processes in generation of biological forms via similarity transformations is analyzed within the framework of D'Arcy Thompson. The significance of D'Arcy Thompson as a predecessor of the relational biology and of the epigenetic concepts of evolution is discussed.
达西·汤普森的著名著作《论生长和形态》（1917 年）为数理生物学奠定了里程碑，为生物系统形态学提供了新的研究视角和数学方法。在这篇简短的历史论文中，我们从回顾的角度回顾了这项工作的新颖性和相关性，尤其是指出了它在表观遗传观点出现时所起的关键作用。达西·汤普森的理论框架内分析了通过相似变换在生物形态生成中发挥作用的潜在表观遗传过程。讨论了达西·汤普森作为关系生物学和进化表观遗传概念的先驱的意义。
