Gene that causes people to be born without fingerprints
But for most of us, having no fingerprints would be a nightmare, causing problems at border control and when proving our identity.
At last scientists have identified the gene behind the rare condition that leaves some people without fingerprints.
Called adermatoglyphia or Immigration Delay Disease, the condition means sufferers are born without any grooves or patterns on the pads of their fingers.
New findings by Professor Eli Sprecher of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center show that a genetic mutation is responsible for this unusual condition.
The condition first came to the attention of the medical community when a Swiss woman tried to cross the border into the United States, which requires non-citizens to be fingerprinted upon entry.Border control personnel were mystified when the woman told them she could not comply because she did not have fingerprints.She and nine members of her family who also have no fingerprints underwent a genetic analysis.
Scientists at Tel Aviv University compared the genes of those with the condition to those without, to identify where the genetic alteration lies.They discovered a skin-specific version of the gene SMARCAD1 influences fingerprint development.The people without fingerprints were found to have lower levels of the gene related to skin development.Scientists will now be able to further investigate how the gene regulates fingerprint development.Like DNA, fingerprints are unique to each person or set of identical twins and that makes them a valuable identification tool for everything from crime detection to international travel.
They are used for identification because they are fully formed 24 weeks after fertilisation and do not change throughout our lives.Only four documented families are known to suffer from the disease worldwide.
In addition to an absence of fingerprints, the condition also leads to a reduction in the number of sweat glands. Abnormal fingerprints can also be a warning sign of more severe disorders.
Adermatoglyphia
Dermatoglyphics: The configurations of the characteristic ridge patterns of the volar surfaces of the skin; in the human hand, the distal segment of each digit has three types of configurations: whorl, loop, and arch. The science or study of these configurations or patterns is called dermatoglyphics.
Adermatoglyphia. Here A is a prefix meaning “Not, without, -less” Which means to say without fingerprints.
Adermatoglyphia is a rare medical condition which causes a person to have no fingerprints. It is also known as "immigration delay disease". There are only four known extended families worldwide which are affected by this condition.
Recently the description of a case from Switzerland with lacking fingerprints as an isolated finding was published.The Phenotype was mapped to Chromosome 4q22. In the splice-site of an 3' exon of the Gene for SMARCAD1-Helicase a point mutation was detected. It results in a shortened form of the skin-specific Protein. The heterozygous mode of mutation suggests an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance.
There are other conditions that cause a lack of fingerprints, but unlike them, adermatoglyphia has no other side effects.Mutations in Helicases are involved in other rare genetic diseases, for instance Werner syndrome.
