Why does the snake have a long body?

After centuries, people have figured out why snakes have such a long body.

Snakes - animals that stand out with their long bodies, don't have any limbs, move by twisting to look very horror.

But when did you wonder, why do snakes have such long bodies? In fact, scientists have asked the same question, and until recently they found the answer.

Accordingly, the long body of snake comes from a single gene, named Oct4 . It is a gene that regulates stem cells and affects the middle body of vertebrate species.

The long snake body only comes from a single gene, called Oct4.

In snakes, there was a stage in evolution that caused Oct4 genes to constantly be activated for longer periods than normal animals. And this gene affects the embryonic development of snakes.

According to Dr. Rita Aires from the Gulbenkian de Ciencia Institute (IGC) of Lisbon, Portugal: "The formation of body areas is like a combination of genotypes. The type of genes involved in the middle body must work. , so that the gene that forms the tail can operate afterwards. "

"With snakes, we observed that the Oct4 gene works for a longer time during the embryonic development stage, suggesting that the body of the snake will be very long, while the tail is short," Aires said.

The thing is, experts set this conclusion based on experiments from . mice. Specifically, mice with Oct4 gene often have longer bodies.

Experts said that the discovery of the role of Oct4 gene could pose a new hope in recovering a spinal injury.

Dr Moises Mallo, the study's lead author, said: "We identified the main factor that allowed unlimited development of the clone, as long as the gene was active. If it was possible to use Oct4 and some genes. Other to reconstruct the spine, we will cure the related diseases - which are extremely difficult to deal with today 's medicine. "