- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion@lemmy.world
New research reveals that the DNA switches controlling human finger development originated from genes that regulated fish cloacas 380 million years ago[1].
“Rather than building a new regulatory system for the digits, nature has repurposed an existing mechanism, initially active in the cloaca,” explains developmental geneticist Denis Duboule from the University of Geneva[1:1].
The research team discovered this by comparing fish and mouse genomes, focusing on Hoxd genes. When they tagged DNA switches with fluorescent markers, these lit up in mouse digits but in fish cloacas. Deleting these genetic elements using CRISPR-Cas9 disrupted finger development in mice and cloaca formation in fish[1:2].
“The common feature between the cloaca and the digits is that they represent terminal parts,” notes geneticist Aurélie Hintermann. “Sometimes they are the end of tubes in the digestive system, sometimes the end of feet and hands”[1:3].
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This is the best out-of-context headline I’ve read all month.
Thank you for not making me the only person to have immediately gone “there” with that title.
Those myocene apes were kinky.
Pairs well with the thumbnail
I had to do a triple take to check it it was the Onion Not the Onion or 196… This is some truly crazy shit.
⊂( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ >-;;;;€ᐷ
This post should be hanging in MOMA
The Nature article in case you want to skip the pop science and get to the good stuff.
Because Hoxd gene regulation in the mouse urogenital sinus relies on enhancers located in this same chromatin domain that controls digit development, we propose that the current regulatory landscape active in distal limbs was co-opted as a whole in tetrapods from a pre-existing cloacal regulatory machinery.
What a coincidence, a fish butthole is why I don’t have fingers anymore.
Oh wow, a toe-typer in the wild!
🍆 ⌨️
That would be quite the articulate shlong.
And here I thought me sticking my fingers up fish buttholes was the reason they existed.
I always knew that was my purpose
I would feel awful finding out I genetically modified a fish to not have a butthole.
That’s fucked up.
All fun and games until you “I have no butthole and I must poop” some fish
This will be a good addition to my “I am so fun at partys”-facts.
How many parties do you get invited to?
Zero. Cause I’m old. But at least I can talk to the other parents on kids birthday partys.
Well you could until you added this fact. Now you’ll be the “fish-butthole-finger” guy.
That’s a brand new sentence right there
deleted by creator
That sounds like something AI would say
Wait, so am I supposed to finger fish?
Is this why Kanye likes fish sticks?
Its the reason you have fingers
I was born to finger fish!
yes. you aren’t already??
Ohh yeah, I was just making sure I was doing it right.
I love how so much science ultimately boils down to putting creatures in a giant magnet and seeing what lights up.
So when I was eating fish fingers as a kid in the uk, what was I really eating???!
Mmmmm, butterfingers are my fave.
Is that how they’re made?
So holding hands is obscene!
