Solved: the mystery of where feathers, fur and scales come from

Source: Washington Post via Charlotte Observer

JUNE 25, 2016 10:45 PM

Solved: the mystery of where feathers, fur and scales come from

BY SARAH KAPLAN
Washington Post

Michel Milinkovitch only bought the naked bearded dragon because he was curious.

He had stumbled upon the unfortunate, odd-looking creature while visiting a reptile breeder. It was utterly scale-less, covered only in leathery, wrinkled skin, and it lacked the spiked neck frill characteristic of its species. Wondering what kind of genetic fluke might have created it, Milinkovitch took the mutant back to his lab at the University of Geneva, where he studies evolutionary developmental biology, and asked one of his grad students to take a look at its DNA.

The results of that research could solve a longstanding puzzle in biology. In a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, Milinkovitch and his grad student, Nicolas Di-Po, report that the mutated gene that robbed the bearded dragon of its scales is the same gene that controls feather development in birds and fur in mammals. Although the three features look very different in adult animals, they start in the same place.

"It's interesting, because these are really key features that allow us to recognize lineages," Milinkovitch said. "How do you recognize birds? Because they have feathers. And mammals have fur, and reptiles have scales."

These might look like fundamental differences, he noted, but really they are fundamentally the same. "They're all inherited from a common structure that then diverged hugely," Milinkovitch said.

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Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/science-technology/article86047187.html

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Related: The anatomical placode in reptile scale morphogenesis indicates shared ancestry among skin appendages in amniotes (Science Advances)