South American Snail May Hold Clues To Restoring Vision
A common South American snail may help unlock therapies to restore vision in humans, according to a study published in Nature Communications on Aug. 6.
Golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata), often sold in pet shops as aquarium cleaners, are also one of the world’s most invasive species. That resilience intrigued Alice Accorsi, now a developmental biologist at the University of California, Davis. Her research revealed the snails can regrow an entire functional eye within months.
What makes this finding particularly exciting is that apple snails possess camera-like eyes structurally similar to human eyes. When Accorsi and colleagues removed a snail’s eye, it grew back in less than a month, though it took about three months to reconnect to the brain.
Using CRISPR/Cas9, Accorsi disabled key eye-development genes, including PAX6, which both snails and humans require to form eyes. Snails without PAX6 failed to develop eyes, underscoring the gene’s critical role.
Experts say the discovery does not mean human eye regeneration is imminent. Still, understanding the genetic “switches” that enable snails to rebuild eyes may one day aid therapies for conditions such as macular degeneration. To Henry Klassen, an ophthalmologist at UC Irvine, just knowing that it is possible to regenerate eyes is “like a beacon of light.”
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1. What role did the PAX6 gene play in the study?
2. How are apple snail eyes similar to human eyes?
3. What did the researchers discover about eye regrowth in snails?
4. What animal did researchers study, and why is it significant?
1. If humans could one day regenerate eyes like snails, how might that change medicine and daily life?
2. Do you think scientists should focus more on studying invasive species like the golden apple snail, even though they can harm ecosystems? Why or why not?
3. Some experts say discoveries like this are “a beacon of light.” Do you agree that knowing regeneration is possible is almost as important as achieving it?
4. If you were a scientist, would you be more interested in studying genetic “switches” in animals or in directly developing therapies for humans? Why?
A common South American snail may help unlock therapies to restore vision in humans, according to a study published in Nature Communications on Aug. 6.
