Positional order and cellular handedness

Abstract

ABSTRACT A major problem in thinking about asymmetrical patterns in organisms is that of obtaining ‘big hands from little hands’ (Harrison, 1979). The big hands are our own, whereas the little hands are asymmetrical organic molecules. Since the molecules that make up our left and right hands are of identical asymmetry, the different handedness of these big hands must be specified at some more complex level of organization. For Harrison (1979) and, more recently, Brown and Wolpert (1990), the link between the levels is a tethered macromolecule or macromolecular aggregate, implying a pre-existing structural system within which the tethering takes place.