Nodal signalling is involved in left–right asymmetry in snails

Cristina Grande and Nipam H. Patel ()
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Cristina Grande: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology,
Nipam H. Patel: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology,

Nature, 2009, vol. 457, issue 7232, 1007-1011

Abstract: The snail that turned The chirality (direction of coiling) of snail shells is an enduring biological puzzle. Cristina Grande and Nipam Patel now show that snail chirality is regulated by nodal, a gene well known for its role in vertebrate left-right asymmetry. Most animals are bilaterally symmetrical, but within that framework display varying amounts of left-right asymmetry. In vertebrates and other deuterostomes, the molecular pathway that leads to asymmetry utilizes the signalling molecule Nodal. Grande and Patel found orthologues (evolutionary equivalents) of Nodal and one of its targets, Pitx, in two species of snail, and show that loss of nodal disrupts shell coiling. This shows that the nodal signalling pathway is primitive for all bilaterians, and is not a particular feature of deuterostomes, as had been suspected.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07603

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