A genetic spin doctor sets snail shells to swirl clockwise, new research confirms. And the twist in this story comes at the beginning — when snail embryos are just single cells.
Though most pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) have shells that coil clockwise, a few have taken a left turn, curling counterclockwise. Researchers had strong evidence that a mutation in a gene called Lsdia1 caused the counterrevolution, but there was a possibility that the similar Lsdia2 gene might be involved. The two genes are 89.4 percent identical, so teasing out which was responsible was tricky.