Embryonic chirality and the evolution of spiralian left-right asymmetries.

ABSTRACT: The group Spiralia includes species with one of the most significant cases of left-right asymmetries in animals: the coiling of the shell of gastropod molluscs (snails). In this animal group, an early event of embryonic chirality controlled by cytoskeleton dynamics and the subsequent differential activation of the genes nodal and Pitx determine the left-right axis of snails, and thus the direction of coiling of the shell. Despite progressive advances in our understanding of left-right axis specification in molluscs, little is known about left-right development in other spiralian taxa. Here, we identify and characterize the expression of nodal and Pitx orthologues in three different spiralian animals-the brachiopod Novocrania anomala, the annelid Owenia fusiformis and the nemertean Lineus r

SUBMITTER: Martin-Duran JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5104510 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature