Flowers’ female sexual organ, known as the style, sometimes leans to the left or right. Researchers have just found evidence of a gene underlying this style predilection, and it’s the first gene known to influence right-left orientation of any plant trait.
Working with left- and right-handed plants of the species Heteranthera multiflora, Linley K. Jesson and Spencer C.H. Barrett at the University of Toronto have carried out breeding experiments and report evidence that a single gene controls floral orientation. Other experiments hint at an evolutionary role for this trait.