Almost every person is born with fingerprints and each person’s are unique. But there are four extended families worldwide that were born without them.
Adermatoglyphia is a disease that causes people to be born with no fingerprints. The disease does not have any side effects except for a minor inability to sweat, and the obvious social difficulties that being born without fingerprints bring.
It makes it very difficult for the sufferers to cross international borders, hence the nickname ‘immigration-delay disease’. Applying for certain types of jobs can also be problematic. A less serious but annoying complication is that these people have less grip in their fingers, and therefore find it cumbersome to turn pages and deal cards.
Researchers have found that the sufferers are born with a mutation of the smaller version of the SMARCAD1. The larger SMARCAD1 gene is expressed throughout the body, but the smaller version only acts on the skin.
The mutation causes copies of the gene to be unstable. That is just the first link in a long chain of events which ultimately hinders fingerprint development in the womb. Unfortunately researchers have not yet figured out what the rest of the events in the chain actually are.
There is hope that the further study of these families will ultimately lead to a biological insight that will help solve all the mysteries surrounding fingerprints.
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