Left-right asymmetry in plants and animals: a gold mine for research

Left-right asymmetry patterns in the body shapes of animals and plants have been a continuous source of interest among biologists. Recently, inroads have been made to developing a coherent research programme that makes use of the unique fact that chiral patterns may be studied (and generalities deduced) by comparisons across many unrelated groups, even across Kingdoms. The papers delivered at the symposium ‘Evolution of Chirality’ during the 2011 European congress of evolutionary biology (ESEB) provide examples of the various research programs that are currently developing within this field. The present paper provides a summary of the symposium, an introduction to this Special Issue of Contributions to Zoology, as well as suggestions for further collaboration among left-right asymmetry researchers.