In the formation of human hands and fish fins involved the same cells.
This was proved by biologists from the University of Chicago in the United States under the leadership of Neil Shubin. Fish are the ancestors of terrestrial vertebrates, whose fins in the course of evolution turned into the paws of animals. The skeleton of a fish is made of cartilage, and animals of connective bone tissue. It is know for a long time. But the researchers decided to look deeper and to prove the relationship of the limbs of the species and conducted a study. In it, they used the ways of editing genes and tracking cell migration.
Biologists began to study the development of embryos of aquarium fish Danio rerio. Fish removed the genes that shaped fins. Several such types have been bred for over two years. Meantime, the observation of the migration of embryonic cells as the development of embryos of fish. Revealed that lack of functional gene does not form normal bony fin rays. These experiments allowed us to identify specific groups of cells that form fish fins and limbs of tetrapods. It turned out that the fingers are derived from the same structure as the rays in the fins of fishes.
“Genetic sequence, which forms the hand, belongs to the family of genes Noh, and they were first only ancient fish,” summed up Neil Shubin.
