Two lefties make a right -- if you are a one-in-a-million garden snail


Date:
June 3, 2020
Source:
University of Nottingham
Summary:
A global campaign to help find a mate for a left-coiling
snail called 'Jeremy' has enabled scientists to understand how
mirror-image garden snails are formed. The findings show that
the rare left-spiraling shell of some garden snails is usually a
development accident, rather than an inherited condition.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A global campaign to help find a mate for a left-coiling snail called
'Jeremy' has enabled scientists to understand how mirror-image garden
snails are formed.


==========================================================================
The findings, published today in the journal Biology Letters, show
that the rare left-spiralling shell of some garden snails is usually a development accident, rather than an inherited condition.

In October 2016, evolutionary geneticist Dr Angus Davison in the
University of Nottingham's School of Life Sciences appealed to the public
for their help in match-making for Jeremy, a garden snail with a rare left-coiling shell.

Dr Davison hoped to use the offspring from Jeremy to study the genetics
of this condition, because his previous work on snails had given
insight into understanding body asymmetry in other animals, including
humans. But another left-coiling snail had to be found first. As well as
a mirror-imaged shell, Jeremy had genitals on the opposite side making
it very difficult for the snail to mate with normal snails.

The science to unravel this mystery was made possible by the involvement
of the general public in finding a mate for Jeremy, initially via an
appeal put out on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, and then the wider
media using #snaillove.

Jeremy became a global sensation and internet 'shellebrity'. More than
1,000 news, radio, television and science articles, including the BBC
and New York Times, highlighted the plight of the lovelorn snail. A
graphic novel featuring the snail is now in development.



==========================================================================
By bringing together a worldwide group of citizen scientists, and the
snails that they had found, Dr Davison used the publicity to understand
what makes an exceptional reversed-coiled snail such as Jeremy.

Altogether more than 40 lefty snails were found by citizen scientists,
in the wild and from snail farms. Davison and the citizen scientists
bred the lefty snails together to test whether their occurrence was due
to an inherited condition. Over three years, nearly fifteen thousand
eggs were hatched from four generations of snails, including Jeremy.

Initially, Jeremy had been left 'shell-shocked' after being given the
cold shoulder by two suitors who seemed to prefer each other. Then,
shortly before Jeremy's death, one mate produced a batch of 56 babies,
about one-third of which were likely to be 'fathered' by Jeremy.

The new evidence shows that rare lefty garden snails are not usually
produced due to an inherited condition. Instead, they are mainly produced
by a developmental accident.

This finding has relevance to understanding the common factors that
define animal asymmetry, including humans, and the origin of rare reversed individuals in other animal groups.

Dr Davison said: "After a long search for a mate, and several mishaps
along the way, Jeremy finally produced offspring, which delighted me --
and the rest of the world. We were then able to use Jeremy's offspring
and the offspring from other lefties to discover how these mirror-imaged individuals are produced. Our findings showed that it is usually a developmental accident, rather than an inherited condition, that makes
a lefty garden snail.

"We helped solve one of nature's puzzles, which was very satisfying. There
was also a happy ending for Jeremy, the snail, in finding love and
producing offspring, albeit just before dying. None of this would have
been possible without the public's help.

"We have learned that two lefties usually make a right, at least if
you are a garden snail. In other snails, being a lefty is an inherited condition, but we still don't really know how they do it. If we are
able to find out, then this may help us understand how the right and
left side of other animal bodies are defined, including ourselves.

"You could say that we tried to recreate what made Jeremy different,
but this was not possible. Jeremy was special."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Nottingham. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Angus Davison, Philippe Thomas. Internet `shellebrity' reflects
on origin
of rare mirror-image snails. Biology Letters, 2020; 16 (6):
20200110 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0110 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603100505.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200603100505.htm

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