The Common Pond Snail Lymnaea stagnalis

Meshcheryakov, Viktor

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-0503-3_5

Cited by 63 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…In C. elegans, the physical reversal of spiral cleavage at the 6-cell stage has been shown to produce a whole-body enantiomorph (Wood, 1991). In freshwater pulmonates such as Lymnaea, however, a similar approach by the manipulation of blastomere configuration has been ineffective, because embryos do not survive beyond gastrulation outside the egg capsule to develop to later stages, despite many technical attempts (Meshcheryakov, 1990). Difficulties in performing microinjection due to characteristics of the egg cell membrane and cytoplasm of L. stagnalis have also hindered our further study of the maternal effect.…”

Section: Development Of Lr Asymmetry In Pulmonate Snailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development and evolution of left‐right asymmetry in invertebrates: Lessons from Drosophila and snails

Okumura

Utsuno

Kuroda

et al. 2008

Developmental Dynamics

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The unique nature of body handedness, which is distinct from the anteroposterior and dorsoventral polarities, has been attracting growing interest in diverse biological disciplines. Recent research progress on the left-right asymmetry of animal development has focused new attention on the mechanisms underlying the development and evolution of invertebrate handedness. This exploratory review of currently available information illuminates the prospective value of Drosophila and pulmonate snails for innovative new research aimed at elucidating these mechanisms. For example, findings in Drosophila and snails suggest that an actin filament-dependent mechanism may be evolutionarily conserved in protostomes. The polarity conservation of primary asymmetry across most metazoan phyla, which visceral handedness represents, indicates developmental constraint and purifying selection as possible but unexplored mechanisms. Comparative studies using Drosophila and snails, which have the great advantages of using genetic and evolutionary approaches, will accelerate our understanding of the mechanisms governing the conservation and diversity of animal handedness. Developmental Dynamics 237: 3497-3515, 2008.

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Section: Development Of Lr Asymmetry In Pulmonate Snailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development and evolution of left‐right asymmetry in invertebrates: Lessons from Drosophila and snails

Okumura

Utsuno

Kuroda

et al. 2008

Developmental Dynamics

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“…At the 24-cell stage, the macromere 3D moves to the central location of vegetal side, fills almost entire cleavage cavity where it contacts with micromeres including animal-most 1st quartet 1q 1 and 1q 2 (q = a, b, c, d). These cell arrangements take place during the long interval between the fifth and sixth cleavages (Meshcheryakov, 1990). Whether the contacts trigger a cell to become 3D or already specified macromere 3D moves to the position is still a matter of debate.…”

Section: Cell-fatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the species had not been well studied compared with Lymnaea peregra (Freeman & Lundelius, 1982) except for the detailed observation of development (Meshcheryakov, 1990), we studied the breeding behaviour (Hosoiri et al 2003), correlation of cleavage pattern and organismal morphology (Shibazaki et al 2004), cytoplasm injections to the 1-cell embryos of opposite chirality (Kuroda, 2014), cytoskeletal dynamics during spiral cleavages (Shibazaki et al 2004), expression of nodal-Pitx genes (Kuroda et al 2009), creation of mirrorimage healthy animals by twisting blastomeres at the third cleavage (Kuroda et al 2009), etc. We also constructed backcrossed congenic animals (Hosoiri et al 2003;Kuroda, 2014;Kuroda et al 2009;Shibazaki et al 2004) and carried out positional cloning in order to identify the handedness determining gene(s).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A twisting story: how a single gene twists a snail? Mechanogenetics

Kuroda

2015

Quart. Rev. Biophys.

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Abstract. Left-right (l-r) symmetry breaking and the establishment of asymmetric animal body plan during embryonic development are fundamental questions in nature. The molecular basis of l-r symmetry breaking of snails is a fascinating topic as it is determined by a maternal single handedness-determining locus at a very early developmental stage. This perspective describes the current state of the art of the chiromorphogenesis, mainly based on our own work, i.e. the first step of l-r symmetry breaking, as proven by our "Mechanogenetics", before the start of zygotic gene expression, transfer of chirality information to the cell-fate determining stage, and the expression of nodal at the blastula stage. The Nodal signalling pathway is a common mechanism in vertebrates' chiromorphogenesis in later development. Studies on snails, especially Lymnaea (L.) stagnalis, shall give important insights into the molecular basis of chiromorphogenesis not only in Lophotrochozoa but in vertebrates as well.

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“…In the case of L. stagnalis, l-r asymmetry is determined already only 3 hours after the first blastomere cleavage, which is determined by a maternal factor before the initiation of zygotic gene expression (Morrill, 1982;Meshcheryakov, 1990). Nodal is expressed asymmetrically at the 33-64 cell stage, about 12 hours after the first cleavage (Kuroda et al, 2009;Kuroda, 2014).…”

Section: Snails Are Ideal Model Animals For the Study Of L-r Symmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Levin suggested some general mechanisms involving gap junctions and H + /K + -ATPase activity as the initial symmetry-breaking steps Adams et al, 2002;Vandenberg and Levin, 2009). In contrast, nodal-Pitx gene expression cascades are well conserved among animal phylum and class including vertebrates, ascidians and Echinoidea, and is known to play an important role in the handedness determination third to fifth cleavages (Morrill, 1982;Verdonk and van den Biggelaar, 1983;Meshcheryakov, 1990). The handedness of snails can be distinguished easily at the third cleavage (i.e., 4 to 8 cell stage) as a quartet of micromeres is rotated with respect to that of sister macromeres in a clockwise sense in a dextral embryo, while in an anticlockwise manner in a sinistral embryo, looking from the animal pole.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiral cleavages determine the left-right body plan by regulating Nodal pathway in monomorphic gastropods, Physa acuta

Abe¹,

Takahashi²,

Kuroda³

2014

Int. J. Dev. Biol.

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The handedness of gastropods is genetically determined, but the molecular nature of the gene responsible and the associated mechanisms remain unknown. In order to characterize the chiromorphogenesis pathway starting from the gene to the left-right asymmetric body plan, we have closely analyzed the cytoskeletal dynamics of the Physa (P.) acuta embryo, a fresh water non-dimorphic sinistral snail, during the early developmental stage by mechanically altering the handedness of the embryos at the critical spiral third cleavage. A fertile situs inversus was created and the nodal-Pitx gene expression patterns were completely mirror imaged to the wild type at the trochophore stage. Together with our previous work on Lymnaea (L.) stagnalis, we could show that chirality is established at the third cleavage, as dictated by the single handedness-determining gene locus, and then chirality information is transferred via subsequent spiral fourth and fifth cleavages to the later developmental stage, dictating the nodal-Pitx expression pathway. The cytoskeletal dynamics of manipulated and non-manipulated embryos of sinistral P. acuta and dextral dominant L. stagnalis are compared.

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The Common Pond Snail Lymnaea stagnalis

Cited by 63 publications

References 64 publications

The development and evolution of left‐right asymmetry in invertebrates: Lessons from Drosophila and snails

The development and evolution of left‐right asymmetry in invertebrates: Lessons from Drosophila and snails

A twisting story: how a single gene twists a snail? Mechanogenetics

Spiral cleavages determine the left-right body plan by regulating Nodal pathway in monomorphic gastropods, Physa acuta

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