Same genes behind left-right asymmetric bodies in human and snail

London, December 22 (ANI): Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have found that the genes, which are responsible for the differences in the internal structures of the left and right sides of human bodies, also control the handedness of snail shells.

Most people’’s hearts are towards the left side of the body, which means the left lung is slightly smaller to make room for it, and the intestines are arranged in an asymmetric coil.

While some people have their insides flipped, their overall internal arrangement is a mirror image of the norm.

Professor Nipam H. Patel and post-doctoral fellow Cristina Grande have identified a gene called “nodal” that, in all vertebrates checked to date, is expressed on the left side of the body and necessary to set up left-right asymmetry.

The researchers have revealed that knocking out nodal causes internal organs are jumbled, and the organism dies.

“In vertebrates, a set of genes tells the body it has to form a heart toward one side, and nodal is one of those genes,” Nature magazine quoted Grande, who recently took a position at the Centro de Biolog

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