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Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, the face of a human being has a plane of symmetry down its centre, or a pine cone displays a clear symmetrical spiral pattern.
In biology, the notion of symmetry is also used as in physics, that is to say to describe the properties of the objects studied, including their interactions. A remarkable property of biological evolution is the changes of symmetry corresponding to the appearance of new parts and dynamics.
Bilateria (/ ˌ b aɪ l ə ˈ t ɪər i ə / BY-lə-TEER-ee-ə) [5] is a large clade or infrakingdom of animals called bilaterians (/ ˌ b aɪ l ə ˈ t ɪər i ə n / BY-lə-TEER-ee-ən), [6] characterized by bilateral symmetry (i.e. having a left and a right side that are mirror images of each other) during embryonic development.
For example, when leaves alternate up a stem, one rotation of the spiral touches two leaves, so the pattern or ratio is 1/2. In hazel the ratio is 1/3; in apricot it is 2/5; in pear it is 3/8; in almond it is 5/13. [56] Animal behaviour can yield spirals; for example, acorn worms leave spiral fecal trails on the sea floor. [57]
Examples are orchids and the flowers of most members of the Lamiales (e.g., Scrophulariaceae and Gesneriaceae). Some authors prefer the term monosymmetry or bilateral symmetry. [1] The asymmetry allows pollen to be deposited in specific locations on pollinating insects and this specificity can result in evolution of new species. [2]
Symmetry breaking in biology is the process by which uniformity is broken, or the number of points to view invariance are reduced, to generate a more structured and improbable state. [1] Symmetry breaking is the event where symmetry along a particular axis is lost to establish a polarity.
In a symmetry group, the group elements are the symmetry operations (not the symmetry elements), and the binary combination consists of applying first one symmetry operation and then the other. An example is the sequence of a C 4 rotation about the z-axis and a reflection in the xy-plane, denoted σ(xy)C 4. By convention the order of operations ...
The elements of this symmetry group should not be confused with the "symmetry element" itself. Loosely, a symmetry element is the geometric set of fixed points of a symmetry operation. For example, for rotation about an axis, the points on the axis do not move and in a reflection the points that remain unchanged make up a plane of symmetry.