Chiral blastomere arrangement dictates zygotic left–right asymmetry pathway in snails

Reiko Kuroda (), Bunshiro Endo, Masanori Abe and Miho Shimizu
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Reiko Kuroda: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
Bunshiro Endo: Kuroda Chiromorphology Team, ERATO-SORST, JST, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0041, Japan
Masanori Abe: Kuroda Chiromorphology Team, ERATO-SORST, JST, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0041, Japan
Miho Shimizu: Kuroda Chiromorphology Team, ERATO-SORST, JST, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0041, Japan

Nature, 2009, vol. 462, issue 7274, 790-794

Abstract: Snails, on the other hand The chirality of snail shell coiling — the 'handedness' that means a structure can't be superimposed on its mirror image — is determined genetically by a single locus and is maternally inherited. The gene responsible has not been identified. Now Reiko Kuroda et al. have found that a simple manipulation of cells in 8-cell stage embryos of the great pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, can reverse chirality in the adult. Remarkably, expression of nodal, a gene that imparts left–right asymmetry in many species, is reversed by the cellular rearrangement. They also show a strong genetic linkage between the handedness-determining gene or genes and the chiral cytoskeletal dynamics at the third cleavage that promotes the dominant-type blastomere arrangement. The availability of this tractable experimental system should make the mechanism of left–right symmetry more amenable to study.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08597

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