Cell News—Cytoskeleton Regulates Left-Right Asymmetry in Frogs

The heart, stomach, and liver are asymmetrical organs and so for normal development in an embryo, proper left-right patterning must occur early. Many of the molecules involved in establishing proper asymmetry in humans are well-known, but whether they are conserved in frogs and if the defects in patterning can later be rescued was not known. Now ASCB member Gary McDowell in Michael Levin’s lab at Tufts University found that disruption of the cytoskeleton just after fertilization, but not later, could disrupt left-right asymmetry in Xenopus laevis frog embryos. The researchers also found that many molecular manipulations that led to initial asymmetry defects could be self-corrected later in the growing embryo, indicating that there are novel mechanisms for regulating left-right asymmetry. Published in Integrative Biology.

Oocytes of the frog, Xenopus laevis. Wellcome Images, Vincent Pasque, University of Cambridge

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