How does a developing embryo, which is initially round, tell left from right? This basic process is still poorly understood. However, investigating unusual cases can help shed light on how this process occurs in animals. More than a century ago, German biologist Dr. H. C. Delsman described unusual left-right (L-R) patterning in the tadpole-like tunicate Oikopleura dioica. Now, researchers at Osaka University have uncovered the details of this process in O. dioica, reported in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
