In this paper, based on full potential density functional theory calculations, the electronic and optical properties of aluminium and gallium phosphide (AlP and GaP) graphene-like structures are investigated under different biaxial compressive and tensile strain loads. One of the fascinating properties of these new monolayers is their high stretch-ability and high mechanosensitivity of their electronic and optical features. The electronic calculations display that the energy gap of materials versus the exerted strain can be estimated by a second order polynomial equation. Furthermore, the optical calculations indicate that the electronic and optical gap of AlP and GaP monolayers can be tuned by biaxial strain loads. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.