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Chirality

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...

Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis

Plant morphogenesis—the development of a plant’s form and structure—involves several overlapping developmental processes, including growth and cell differentiation. Precursor cells differentiate into specific cell types, which are organized into the tissues and organ systems that make up the functional plant.

Chirality in Nature

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.

Rotation of Asymmetric Top

Rotation of Asymmetric Top

By definition, a spherically symmetric body has the same moment of inertia about any axis passing through its center of mass. This situation changes if there is no spherical symmetry. Since most rigid bodies are not spherically symmetric, these require special treatment.
The relationship between the angular momentum of any rigid body and its angular velocity, both of which are vectors, involves the moment of inertia. The moment of inertia is a scalar quantity only for spherically symmetric...

Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer

Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer

Biological membranes show uneven distribution of different types of lipids in the inner and outer layers, resulting in transverse asymmetric membranes. The treatment of the erythrocyte membrane with the enzyme phospholipase confirmed the asymmetric nature of the lipid bilayer. The enzyme hydrolyzes lipids into fatty acids and hydrophilic groups. The phospholipase acts only on the outer layer of the membrane, while the inner layer remains intact. The phospholipase treatment resulted in 80%...

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 11, 2026

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

Cell Chirality Drives Left-Right Asymmetric Morphogenesis.

Mikiko Inaki¹, Takeshi Sasamura¹, Kenji Matsuno¹

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.

Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

|April 19, 2018

Summary

Cell chirality, the intrinsic structural asymmetry of cells, drives left-right development in organisms like Drosophila. This fundamental property, involving the actin cytoskeleton and Myosin31DF, is conserved across species and may play roles in vertebrate development.

Keywords:

Drosophila F-actin Myosin I cell chirality left-right asymmetry

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Area of Science:

Developmental Biology
Cell Biology
Biophysics

Background:

Most cellular macromolecules are chiral, but cellular chirality itself is a recently explored concept.
Left-right (LR) asymmetry is crucial in organismal development.
The mechanisms underlying cellular chirality and its developmental roles are largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of intrinsic cell chirality in left-right (LR) asymmetric development.
To identify molecular mechanisms and components involved in establishing cell chirality.
To explore the evolutionary conservation and potential functions of cell chirality.

Main Methods:

Studies on the mechanisms of LR asymmetric development in Drosophila.
Investigation of the actin cytoskeleton's role in cell chirality.
Identification of molecular regulators, such as Myosin31DF (Myo31DF).

Main Results:

Cell chirality was discovered to be responsible for LR asymmetric development in Drosophila organs.
The actin cytoskeleton is essential for the formation of cell chirality.
Myosin31DF (Myo31DF) acts as a molecular switch for cell chirality.
Cellular chirality was observed in other invertebrates (snails, C. elegans) and vertebrate cells, suggesting evolutionary conservation.

Conclusions:

Cell chirality is a fundamental property that broadly contributes to LR asymmetric development in invertebrates.
Cell chirality, involving the actin cytoskeleton, is evolutionarily conserved.
While biological roles in vertebrates are unknown, cell chirality may influence LR asymmetric development and other morphogenetic processes.