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

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  • Reiko Kuroda

    (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
    Kuroda Chiromorphology Team, ERATO-SORST, JST, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0041, Japan
    Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Reiko Kuroda & Bunshiro Endo & Masanori Abe & Miho Shimizu, 2009. "Chiral blastomere arrangement dictates zygotic left–right asymmetry pathway in snails," Nature, Nature, vol. 462(7274), pages 790-794, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:462:y:2009:i:7274:d:10.1038_nature08597
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08597
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    Cited by:

    1. Akshai Janardhana Kurup & Florian Bailet & Maximilian Fürthauer, 2024. "Myosin1G promotes Nodal signaling to control zebrafish left-right asymmetry," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.

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