What's the difference between mice and people?

Do you know that?/You know what? Do you know that?/You know what? 30% of human genes are like bananas, more like fruit flies and more like mice. Why do genes have so many repetitions, but they form completely different creatures? In a paper recently published in PLos, Pat Simpson of Cambridge University and his colleagues used fruit flies to find a preliminary answer.

Genes consist of two parts. One part is used for protein coding (which is similar in different organisms), and the other part controls when, where and to what extent genes are turned on.

To the layman, fruit flies look very similar, but in fact, there are nearly 4,000 distinct species of fruit flies. Many characteristics of these species, such as the texture of wings and the position of chest bristles, are obviously different. These characteristics have evolved from the ancestors of fruit flies over millions of years. Every species-human, mouse (even banana)-has a unique form, which is related to subtle differences in genes, but where are these differences located in genes?

Simpson and others compared the genes of two similar species of fruit flies, one with two rows of bristles on the chest and the other with four rows of bristles. The original difference lies in a small fragment of the control gene. If this gene fragment is exchanged, then two rows of fruit flies can become four rows of fruit flies.

The research results show that subtle changes in control genes can lead to subtle changes in organisms, and after continuous accumulation, new species may be produced. Although this has been widely accepted by evolutionary biologists, there are few examples of morphological differences directly caused by control genes. Although we can't turn a person into a banana or even a mouse by adjusting gene sequences, the study of these sequences will help us understand the evolution process of different organisms.