Polydactyly

gimme five good reasons...

Today we are going to talk about little differences between one person and another. Sometimes we dwell on the differences rather than embracing them as opportunities. Biologists call these differences mutations. Some of them are 'good' and some of them are 'bad'. They are all quite natural. The sooner we embrace these differences, the sooner we will share the benefits.

What is This?

24 hours to post your guess in the comments. This is not related to the post. This is week 3 of the challenge. I will try something new if this does not take root. The first two tries at this were not successful.

The Inspiration

I am writing on New Years Day. I found an unusual topic and am not sure whether it will make it to press. ESPN was the inspiration and the topic is unexpected. Look CLOSELY at the man in the football helmet for something unexpected. We are going to talk about difference

The Setup

Amidst the college bowl games, the sports-oriented networks like to show human-interest stories to round out their game previews and coverage. I saw this on ESPN College Gameday and was intrigued by the story. It is a bit of a spoiler if you watch it now but might be fun to come back to. Whenever I watch a game involving my hometown Buffalo Bills, invariably the coverage might extend to snow, chicken wings, or loyal tailgating fans on these sort of coverage snippets. We all know that during the Olympics, many of these made-to-order stories are already in the can.

I have taken a personal DNA test on the service 23andMe.com. I took the test as part of my Genealogy hobby interest. Unlike Ancestry.com, it also provides health insights and a more technical discussion about our chromosomes, mutations, etcetera. Included with your genealogy connections, 23andMe also provides health insights if you are interested in learning more. I am inquisitive so I explored what the reports and analysis had to say. This was an entry point to understand some of the genetics of disease and inheritance.

Polydactyly is the big word of the day. This is a condition where a person can be born with extra fingers or toes or a combination of both. I did not choose this topic to get people to click through. It is interesting how common the condition is. With an estimated population of 330 million people, it is estimated that 1 of 500 of us have this genetic condition. That translates to about 660,000 instances. Many of us in our daily lives have likely encountered this at those rates. I don’t think I am wired to notice but found the numbers interesting.

The Details

Mutation, for some, might carry a negative connotation. I think a more neutral way to express it is a difference. The sources of “errors” are most often associated with transcription (copying) errors, exposure to ionizing radiation, exposure to chemicals called mutagens, or infections by viruses. This is our world and mutation is an important step forward. The results can be negative, positive, or neutral. Long-term change in a species results when a mutation emerges and provides an advantage.

The human genome is fascinating to me. Various estimates are that perhaps 10% of the whole DNA is functional and the other 90% is not operational for our existence. Since we share DNA with every living thing, different parts apply to different branches of life I suppose. The ability to replicate is a fundamentally amazing function and is called transcription. While only a useful analogy, the human genome can be thought of as a three billion-character message. It appears when copies are made (time for a new cell), our bodies only make an error one out of 100 million attempts. That is a pretty accurate copier! If the “error” is in the non-functional region (90%) that means only 1 in a billion errors COULD be consequential. Finally, the function of the cell in question (perhaps it’s time for more skin) might only need a VERY SMALL portion of the 300,000,000 character message (that’s 10% functional) to get the job done. This is all very impressive to me.

Now, back to the story. Polydactyly is an intriguing condition to be born with. I would imagine there might be an advantage to having an extra finger. I wonder? For me, this is where the story gets interesting. I would imagine that being born with this condition was not ideal socially and many parents opt for orthopedic intervention. The story that is more interesting to me is what happens if you just adapt to the change? We all have heard how early development is essential for a newborn. What we now know is that an area of our brain is RESERVED and can be observed via an fMRI scan. Different areas of our brain can be isolated for each of the fingers as they fire. We have enough capacity to deal with the extras. I think that is so cool!

It turns out there is leading-edge research that has been done to understand the implications. A person with five fingers and a thumb will evolve the capacity to do certain tasks with a single hand that a “normal” human uses two hands for! This is amazing! While it may only be interesting to me, take a look at the linked article about what happens in our bodies when a transcription “error” grants us another digit. The person who inspired today’s story is J.J. Weaver, a University of Kentucky outside linebacker. The ESPN story focuses on the positive impact he has had on others with the same condition. What a wonderful world. While it is not one of my hobbies, I would imagine a gamer would welcome an extra digit at times.

Here’s a song with the lyrics. They are on point. I marvel at our diversity and realize that each little difference has the chance to change the world, we just have to listen and judge a bit less.