Natural reversal of left-right gut/gonad asymmetry in C. elegans males is independent of embryonic chirality

Brain bilateral asymmetry - insights from nematodes, zebrafish, and Drosophila

Chirality is a fundamental trait of living organisms, encompassing the homochirality of biological molecules and the left-right (LR) asymmetry of visceral organs and the brain. The nervous system in bilaterian organisms displays a lateralized organization characterized by the presence of asymmetrical neuronal circuits and brain functions that are predominantly localized within one hemisphere. Although body asymmetry is relatively well understood, and exhibits robust phenotypic expression and regulation via conserved molecular mechanisms across phyla, current findings indicate that the asymmetry of the nervous system displays greater phenotypic, genetic, and evolutionary variability. In this review we explore the use of nematode, zebrafish, and Drosophila genetic models to investigate neuronal circuit asymmetry. We discuss recent discoveries in the context of body-brain concordance and highlight the distinct characteristics of nervous system asymmetry and its cognitive correlates.

Heterotaxy in Caenorhabditis: widespread natural variation in left-right arrangement of the major organs

Although the arrangement of internal organs in most metazoans is profoundly left-right (L/R) asymmetric with a predominant handedness, rare individuals show full (mirror-symmetric) or partial (heterotaxy) reversals. While the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is known for its highly determinate development, including stereotyped L/R organ handedness, we found that L/R asymmetry of the major organs, the gut and gonad, varies among natural isolates of the species in both males and hermaphrodites. In hermaphrodites, heterotaxy can involve one or both bilaterally asymmetric gonad arms. Male heterotaxy is probably not attributable to relaxed selection in this hermaphroditic species, as it is also seen in gonochoristic Caenorhabditis species. Heterotaxy increases in many isolates at elevated temperature, with one showing a pregastrulation temperature-sensitive period, suggesting a very early embryonic or germline effect on this much later developmental outcome. A genome-wide association study of 100 isolates showed that male heterotaxy is associated with three genomic regions. Analysis of recombinant inbred lines suggests that a small number of loci are responsible for the observed variation. These findings reveal that heterotaxy is a widely varying quantitative trait in an animal with an otherwise highly stereotyped anatomy, demonstrating unexpected plasticity in an L/R arrangement of the major organs even in a simple animal.This article is part of the themed issue 'Provocative questions in left-right asymmetry'.

Multiaxial Polarity Determines Individual Cellular and Nuclear Chirality

Intrinsic cell chirality has been implicated in the left-right (LR) asymmetry of embryonic development. Impaired cell chirality could lead to severe birth defects in laterality. Previously, we detected cell chirality with an in vitro micropatterning system. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that chirality can be quantified as the coordination of multiaxial polarization of individual cells and nuclei. Using an object labeling, connected component based method, we characterized cell chirality based on cell and nuclear shape polarization and nuclear positioning of each cell in multicellular patterns of epithelial cells. We found that the cells adopted a LR bias the boundaries by positioning the sharp end towards the leading edge and leaving the nucleus at the rear. This behavior is consistent with the directional migration observed previously on the boundary of micropatterns. Although the nucleus is chirally aligned, it is not strongly biased towards or away from the boundary. As the result of the rear positioning of nuclei, the nuclear positioning has an opposite chirality to that of cell alignment. Overall, our results have revealed deep insights of chiral morphogenesis as the coordination of multiaxial polarization at the cellular and subcellular levels.