It is estimated that Something more than 10% of the world population is left. Today, this does not usually involve greater inconveniences, but there are animals that have a more problematic asymmetry: snails.
Left -handed snails. Most snails share the direction in which their snail draws its spiral characteristic that revolves in the direction of the clock needles. But there is a very small population of snails whose shells develop in reverse. The reason It seems to be In a small genetic variation.
The snails that develop their shell symmetrically to the rest are usually called them as “left -handed snails”, but if we had to look for a more precise human analogue we tended to go to the condition to which which We call SITUS INVERSUS. People with this condition, also of genetic origin, develop one or more organs on the “incorrect” side, for example they can have the heart to the right and the liver to the left.
This condition occurs in around one person in 10,000 and rarely generates disorders, but in the case of these mollusks, the investment of their snail can cause problems, for example, making it difficult to reproduce these animals.
A vital gene. Understanding the genetics responsible for change in these animals is important since it can give us clues about the evolution that was modeling the different genera and gastropod species. According to Explain the team Responsible for discovering the main gene involved in this differentiation, throughout the evolution, these changes resulted in the appearance of new species, something striking when it comes to mutations that hinder reproduction.
Laboratory snails. The team conducted its study with a variant of snails of the species Bradybaena Similaris. The variant has the characteristic of presenting a high prevalence of “left -handed” snails, almost half of the specimens are born with this characteristic.
The team compared the genes of the mice born with shells that turned to either side. They discovered that the main difference was in a gene, Diaph, but not in the gene itself but in its expression. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Zoological Letters.
Jeremy’s curious case. Perhaps the most famous snail to present this anomaly was a British snail nicknamed Jeremy in honor of politician Jeremy Corbyn, the leftist politician who was twice a candidate for prime minister in the United Kingdom.
Jeremy was the protagonist of another investigation whose results postulated an alternative hypothesis to genetics based. The team responsible for the study concluded, after gathering numerous specimens such as Jeremy so that they could reproduce between them, that the change obeyed external forcesnot by genetic inheritance but for accidents in development.
The study, Posted in 2020 In the magazine Biology Lettersreminds us that we will still have to investigate these mollusks, their genetics and their development, if we want to know exactly what phenomenon is behind this unique characteristic of a small amount of snails and, above all, of its implications.
Image | Angus Davison
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings