"Cell" Chinese scientist: The genetic code of the longer the finger has a "dou" in the fingerprint has been found!

In the most comprehensive analysis to date, the researchers found that the shape of fingerprints—whether round, wavy or tangled—was influenced by genes responsible for limb development, not skin patterns

"People may wonder why our team studied fingerprints," said researcher Sijia Wang, a geneticist at the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-senior author of the paper

While fingerprints are unique to an individual, they are generally classified into three types: arch, loop, and whorl

Researcher Wang and his colleagues screened the DNA of more than 23,000 people of different ethnicities and found at least 43 regions of the genome associated with fingerprint patterns

To test their findings, the team modified the mice's DNA so that the expression of EVI1 was suppressed

Analysis of human data revealed a genetic correlation between fingerprint patterns and finger length

"We don't know how genes form fingerprint patterns, but it can be determined by the force of growth on the palm rest of embryonic tissue that plays an important role in the formation of different fingerprint patterns

It's worth noting, Wang said, that previous studies have shown that EVI1 is associated with the risk of developing leukemia, and some studies have observed that people with more swirls are more likely to develop the disease

Image credit: Int.

He said: "Many congenital genetic disorders are associated with different dermatoglyphic patterns, such as fingerprints

The research is part of the International Human Phenotyping Project, led by Fudan University in Shanghai, which aims to map the interrelationships between human phenotypic traits

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Magazine

Cell

DOI

10.