#chirality — Public Fediverse posts

New 🐌 paper, just out 😃. Chiral variation of Japanese *Euhadra* snails is due to dominant-acting changes in a myosin I a/b gene. Both sinistral and dextral versions are ancient and not pathological, with embryos showing minimal transcriptional differences. Sinistral myosin shows evidence for relaxed natural selection.

Work began in 2002, but key advance was 2023 discovery of new field site and 2025 genome assembly.

#snails #LRasymmetry #chirality #genomics https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)01269-8

"The combined work of Kagan and Soai demonstrates that it is possible to convert a near-equal mixture of two mirror-imaged molecules – or enantiomers – into only one form. Crucially, Soai discovered a reaction where the product was also the catalyst."

https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/how-asymmetric-autocatalysis-won-the-nobel-prize/4024363.article

#Chemistry #Reactions #Chirality