Davison Angus, Frend Hayley T, Moray Camile, Wheatley Hannah, Searle Laura J, Eichhorn Markus P
School of Biology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
Biol Lett. 2009 Feb 23;5(1):20-2. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0528.
Lateralization of the brain has traditionally been considered a specialization that is confined to the vertebrates, but recent studies have revealed that a range of invertebrates also have a brain that is structurally asymmetric and/or each side performs a different set of functions. Here, we show that the precopulatory mating behaviour of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis is lateralized. We present evidence that the asymmetry of the behaviour corresponds to the sinistral or dextral shell coil, or chirality, of the snail, and is apparently also controlled by a maternal effect locus. As sinistral snails also tend to have mirror image brains, these findings suggest that the lateralized sexual behaviour of L. stagnalis is set up early in development, and is a direct consequence of the asymmetry of the entire body.
大脑的功能侧化传统上被认为是脊椎动物特有的一种专门化现象，但最近的研究表明，一系列无脊椎动物也拥有结构不对称的大脑和/或每一侧执行不同的功能集。在这里，我们表明池塘蜗牛椎实螺的交配前行为是功能侧化的。我们提供的证据表明，这种行为的不对称与蜗牛的左旋或右旋壳螺旋，即手性相对应，并且显然也受母体效应基因座的控制。由于左旋蜗牛也往往具有镜像大脑，这些发现表明椎实螺的功能侧化性行为在发育早期就已确立，并且是整个身体不对称的直接结果。
