[Key points]
1. Solving the mystery of left-handed　snails that are supposed not to be able to originate in theory, but exist
2. Demonstrating that speciation has been driven by anti-predator adaption
3. Discovering that a gene can have major effects on both of speciation and adaption

[Summary]
Biodiversity has been created by repeated speciation for hundreds of millions of years.  It is the major goal in evolutionally biology to elucidate speciation mechanisms. Masaki Hoso, a JSPS fellow at Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, and his colleagues found out that evolution of left-right reversal in snails had been driven by anti-predator adaptation against snail-eating snakes.

This research result has been published online in Nature Communications on December 8, 2010.

More information (Japanese)

[Contact]
Masaki Hoso, Fellow
Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University and
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
TEL: +81-022-795-7813
Ｅ-mail: MasakiHoso*gmail.com　(Replace * with @)