Patterned morphologies, such as segments, spirals, stripes, and spots, frequently emerge during embryogenesis through self-organized coordination between cells. Yet, complex patterns also emerge in adults, suggesting that the capacity for spontaneous self-organization is a ubiquitous property of biological tissues. We review current knowledge on the principles and mechanisms of self-organized patterning in embryonic tissues and explore how these principles and mechanisms apply to adult tissues that exhibit features of patterning. We discuss how and why spontaneous pattern generation is integral to homeostasis and healing of tissues, illustrating it with examples from regenerative biology. We examine how aberrant self-organization underlies diverse pathological states, including inflammatory skin disorders and tumors. Lastly, we posit that based on such blueprints, targeted engineering of pattern-driving molecular circuits can be leveraged for synthetic biology and the generation of organoids with intricate patterns.

图案形态，例如片段、螺旋、条纹和斑点，在胚胎发生过程中通过细胞之间的自组织协调经常出现。然而，成人身上也出现了复杂的模式，这表明自发自组织的能力是生物组织普遍存在的特性。我们回顾了有关胚胎组织自组织模式的原理和机制的现有知识，并探讨了这些原理和机制如何应用于表现出模式化特征的成体组织。我们讨论自发模式生成如何以及为何对于组织的稳态和愈合至关重要，并用再生生物学的例子进行说明。我们研究异常的自组织如何成为不同病理状态的基础，包括炎症性皮肤病和肿瘤。最后，我们假设基于这样的蓝图，模式驱动分子电路的有针对性的工程可以用于合成生物学和具有复杂模式的类器官的生成。