The snail Ilyanassa: a reemerging model for studies in development

Ilyanassa obsoleta is a marine gastropod that is a long-standing and very useful model for studies of embryonic development. It is especially important as a model for the spiralian development program, a distinctive mode of early development shared by a large group of animal phyla, but poorly understood. Ilyanassa adults are readily obtainable and easy to keep in the laboratory, and they produce large numbers of embryos throughout most of the year. The embryos are amenable to classic embryological manipulation techniques as well as a growing number of molecular approaches. In this article, we present an overview of aspects of its biology and use as a model organism.