Snakes and mice don’t look alike. But much of what we know about skin colouration and patterning in vertebrates generally, including in snakes, is based on lab mice. However, there are limits to what mice can tell us about other vertebrates because they don’t share all of the same types of colour-producing cells, known as chromatophores. For example, snakes have a type of chromatophore called iridophores that can generate iridescent colours by reflecting light.

Classified as: Faculty of Science, Rowan Barrett, piebald python, CRISPR, genetic research, Redpath Museum
Published on: 3 Feb 2023

Until now scientists have believed that the variations in traits such as our height, skin colour, tendency to gain weight or not, intelligence, tendency to develop certain diseases, etc., all of them traits that exist along a continuum, were a result of both genetic and environmental factors. But they didn’t know how exactly these things worked together. By studying ants, McGill researchers have identified a key mechanism by which environmental (or epigenetic) factors influence the expression of all of these traits, (along with many more).

Classified as: Research, science, moshe szyf, epigenetics, McGill News, complex traits, Dept. of Biology, Dept. of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Ehab Abouheif, genetic research
Category:
Published on: 11 Mar 2015
Back to top