Morphogenetic field

In the developmental biology of the early twentieth century, a morphogenetic field is a research hypothesis and a discrete region of cells in an embryo.

The term morphogenetic field conceptualizes the scientific experimental finding that an embryonic group of cells, for example a forelimb bud, could be transplanted to another part of the embryo and in ongoing individual development still give rise to a forelimb at an odd place of the organism. And it describes a group of embryonic cells able to respond to localized biochemical signals − called field − leading to the genesis of morphological structures: tissues, organs, or parts of an organism.

The spatial and temporal extents of such a region of embryonic stem cells are dynamic, and within it is a collection of interacting cells out of which a particular tissue, organ, or body part is formed. As a group, the cells within a morphogenetic field in an embryo are constrained: thus, cells in a limb field will become a limb tissue, those in a heart field will become heart tissue. Individual cells within a morphogenetic field in an embryo are flexible: thus, cells in a cardiac field can be redirected via cell-to-cell signaling to replace damaged or missing cells.

The Imaginal disc in larvae is an example of a discrete morphogenetic field region of cells in an insect embryo.