Dear Colleagues,

Directional left–right symmetry is a fundamental property of organisms, including bacteria, protozoans, plants, and animals. However, the underlying mechanisms of left–right symmetry formation remain a fascinating mystery. For example, in humans, the positions and shapes of internal organs, such as the heart, lung, and gut, show stereotypical left–right asymmetry. Conditions of left–right inversion were already perceived in humans in the 19th century, leading to a belief that something must direct from left to right. A pivotal breakthough was made with the proposal of the “nodal flow model”, in which the leftward flow of extra-embryonic fluid acts as the first cue to start the left–right asymmetric development. To date, mechanisms of left–right asymmetry formation have been studied in many organisms. In Ecdysozoa and Lophotrochozoa, chirality of cells and blastomeres is responsible for the left–right asymmetric development. In plants, the organization of microtubules is central to their left–right asymmetric structures. Based on these findings, interestingly, the mechanisms of left–right asymmetric development are exceedingly evolutionarily divergent. It is easy to imagine that these divergent mechanisms depend on distinctive cellular machineries. In other words, a wide range of cellular machineries and functions are utilized to achieve left–right asymmetric development in various organisms. In this Special Issue, the cell biology underlying left–right asymmetric development will be summarized and discussed. We hope that this Special Issue will help to advance our knowledge of left–right asymmetry formation.

Prof. Dr. Kenji Matsuno
Prof. Dr. Takashi Hashimoto
Prof. Dr. Hiroshi Hamada
Guest Editors

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