International team of
researchers have identified a gene which is the major switch box to determine
whether the shells of snails to twist clockwise or anticlockwise. This new
identification can provide answers how the same gene allows insights of body asymmetry
in different animals, including humans. The research is published in the
journal Current Biology by scientists
from University of Nottingham, UK.
The question does often
will arise why every animal or organisms have definite asymmetry, where their
bodily organs are placed at certain determined places inside. If these organs
is reversed or mirrored from their normal placement, the whole process would go
wrong. Three different teams from different countries – UK, Germany and US
worked on genes of snail’s shell control that twist clockwise or anticlockwise.
The gene that controls this movement produces a protein called formin that is
involved in cell scaffold. If found problem in this protein, the whole snail
gets ‘reversed’, i.e. mirror image of the same snail.
Scientists initially
mapped the location of the gene and then used genome sequencing technology to
find mutation in the formin producing gene make snails to develop anticlockwise
coiling mirror image. The stunning result in the small animal is the
combination of traditional genetics and developmental biology.
To understand whether
similar case of events does occur in vertebrates, experiments were carried over
frog. The result was successful enough to prove that gene has same function over
vertebrates. Researchers now believe that the same molecule can provide deep
insights about left-right axis determining event amongst bacteria to
multicellular animals.
Further Reading: University
of Nottingham
Journal reference: Angus
Davison, Gary S. McDowell, Jennifer M. Holden, Harriet F. Johnson, Georgios D.
Koutsovoulos, M. Maureen Liu, Paco Hulpiau, Frans Van Roy, Christopher M. Wade,
Ruby Banerjee, Fengtang Yang, Satoshi Chiba, John W. Davey, Daniel J. Jackson,
Michael Levin, Mark L. Blaxter. Formin Is Associated with Left-Right Asymmetry
in the Pond Snail and the Frog. Current Biology, 2016; DOI:
10.1016/j.cub.2015.12.071
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