Greyclouds
September 4th, 2009, 2:44 pm
Many mammals have developed means of eating that does not involve teeth. Since these specialized eaters appear to dine on rather specific forms of food, the Theory of Common Ancestry would predict that they would develop as a side-branch to animals that had more universal "teeth" structures.
Well, bioinformaticists have discovered that the enamelin gene (the gene that codes for a protein that helps the mineralization of the enamel matrix on the outward facing side of teeth) exists in a degraded form in "toothless" mammals such as whales, anteaters and other specialized feeders!
Here is the science blog article describing the discovery in detail:
http://www.physorg.com/news171272885.html
And here's the actual article itself, if you'd care to read through the details!
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1000634
Keep in mind that enamelin in toothless animals serves no important functions (that we know about yet), so its preservation is as an artifact of its previous presence in the genome! Cool huh?
Well, bioinformaticists have discovered that the enamelin gene (the gene that codes for a protein that helps the mineralization of the enamel matrix on the outward facing side of teeth) exists in a degraded form in "toothless" mammals such as whales, anteaters and other specialized feeders!
Here is the science blog article describing the discovery in detail:
http://www.physorg.com/news171272885.html
And here's the actual article itself, if you'd care to read through the details!
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1000634
Keep in mind that enamelin in toothless animals serves no important functions (that we know about yet), so its preservation is as an artifact of its previous presence in the genome! Cool huh?