At the earliest stage of life, we are just small fertilized eggs called zygotes. These zygotes are just balls of cells that keep dividing to form an embryo. After the cells undergo some rearrangement and each cell has a future to look forward to, they start working towards making the specific organs. When it comes to our limbs, something similar happens. Molecules called morphogens help by forming our arms and the position of each part depends on how much or how little of the molecule is present from one end to another. Once we have our arms, we get more in depth into forming our digits – our fingers! We have genes called the Hox genes – in short, they are responsible for making the decision of which body part ends up where. They are also in charge of deciding on our fingers – the numbers, the length between the fingers. The expression of Hox 13 and Gli3 genes are possibly the most important in order to determine those aspects. So what happens when we stop the genes from working? We create mutants. When the Gli3, Hox 11-13 and Hox 13 genes are on we get normal fingered hands. When we alter the Hox 13 genes or prevent the Hox 11-13 from expressing, there is significant reduction in the gaps between our fingers. Taking this a little further, we turn off the Gli3 genes from expressing, we get more than five fingers. The fingers also end up with our fingers being completely joined from the top. The fingers and the gaps can be seen as waves. The peaks of the waves can be seen as the fingers and the gaps can be seen as the drops in the waves. Thus the length between the fingers can be called wavelengths. So as the Hox genes are turned off, the wavelength reduces.
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