Chapter 3: Handy Genes

while reading this book on my vacation it was really kind of a buzz kill. but there were some interesting things that i read that grabbed my attention. some interesting points are: experiments with DNA have enormous potential to reveal inner fish. i find it funny how at birth we start as a single call that contains DNA needed to build our body and that tiny amount of DNA creates the large humans that we are. our limbs exist in 3 dimensions they have a bottom a top and a pinky side.(the pinky is my favorite finger so this was interesting). Edgar Zwilling and John Saunders discovered that two little patches of tissues essentially control the development of the pattern of bones inside limbs. ZPA drew interest because it appeared to control the information of fingers and toes. Hedgehog geneticists gave this gene its name because the flies with a mutation in the gene had bristles that reminded them of a hedgehog. every limbed animal has a sonic hedgehog gene. sharks are the earliest relatives of creatures that have fins with a skeleton inside.