(ORDO NEWS) — Everyone knows that each person’s fingerprints are unique, but why this happens, no one knew. And now an international team of researchers has uncovered this mystery.
Each person has unique features that distinguish him from all other representatives of the species: the pattern of the retina, the pattern of veins in the palm of his hand, fingerprints, and so on.
For more than a hundred years, fingerprint methods of human identification have been used in forensics and biometrics , although so far none of the scientists could say exactly how a unique pattern is formed on our fingertips.
The point is clearly not in the genes: even identical twins, formed from the same egg, have different typos.
An international team of researchers tracked the development of fingerprints in mouse embryos and in cultured human cells.
Scientists have found that the “reaction-diffusion system”, discovered in the 1950s by the English mathematician Alan Turing, plays a significant role in the formation of imprints.
According to Turing, some molecules in the developing system promote cell growth, while others actively hinder it.
As a result of the interaction of two forces, such unique features of living organisms as the pattern of zebra stripes, giraffe spots or the print of a dog’s nose are formed.
By observing the development of fingerprints in mouse embryos and in cultured human cells, the researchers noticed that skin cells behave according to a reaction-diffusion system, and the emerging microridges propagate sideways like waves, colliding and interacting with each other.
This process begins at three points: at the tip of the finger, in the center of the pad, and closer to the second phalanx of the finger, and ultimately leads to the formation of a unique print pattern.
The initial stages of this process resemble the formation of hair follicles, although hair formation requires cells from deeper layers of the skin.
Probably, if we had the opportunity to “read” the pattern of hair, we would be convinced that their location on the skin of each person is unique and unrepeatable.
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