The Fascinating World of Gene-Edited Snakes and Their Evolutionary Mysteries
Scientists have used CRISPR gene-editing to create the world's first genetically modified snakes, which lack the hexagonal scales found on the dorsal-lateral scales of corn snakes. The researchers found that the spatial organisation of the placodes that determine the positioning of the scales follows a pattern first explained by mathematician Alan Turing. The study provides new insight into how snakes develop their precisely patterned scales, which are the result of placodes, small, thickened structures on the skin that develop at the embryonic level.