In snails, manipulating the orientation of cells in the early embryo alters the left–right asymmetry of the shell and body. These findings refine the search for the symmetry-breaking event in this and ...

Snail shells coil in response to a lopsided protein gradient across their shell mantles, finds new research. In contrast the shell mantle of limpets, whose shells do not coil, have a symmetrical ...

Berkeley -- Biologists have tracked down genes that control the handedness of snail shells, and they turn out to be similar to the genes used by humans to set up the left and right sides of the body.