Beautiful Asymmetry

Symmetrical faces are supposed to be more attractive, but many of our organs and tissues developed to be asymmetrical – the heart, for example, uses different patterns of blood vessels on its left- and right-hand sides. Researchers are beginning to uncover the mechanisms responsible for left and right-handedness or chirality inside our bodies, and here they found asymmetry even inside single human cells. Tiny ‘bones’ of actin in each cell (green) bend from tiny anchor points (orange) on the surface below, ultimately producing the cells’ structure – its cytoskeleton. Although these cells are re-arranging their cytoskeletons in different ways, many eventually settle into spiral patterns (top right) that can be left or right-handed. The discovery of chirality inside single cells, the building blocks of tissues, suggests that asymmetry plays a vital role in the earliest stages of development, and that the beauty of symmetry is perhaps only skin deep.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Yee Han Tee and colleagues
• Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore and Faculty of Biology, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
• Image copyright held by Nature Publishing Group
• Published in Nature Cell Biology, March 2015