Alan Turing has helped break another code. This time the code is how patterns appear in nature.
Turing, known for breaking the German Enigma code in WWII, proposed an idea about why we see repeating patterns in biological systems. The idea is that these patterns are generated by a pair of morphogens, which are signal changes in cells. One morphogen is called the activator and the other one is known as the inhibitor.
The activator and inhibitor work together to start and stop patterns found in nature. Scientists have recently been able to identify these morphogens through a series of experiments on fruit flies and mouse embryos.
The experiments were to test how regularly ridges appeared on the mouth of the mice. The tests on the flies were to determine how regularly bristles appeared on their bodies. The scientists named the two morphogens FGF (Fibroblast Growth Factor) and SHh (Sonic Hedgehog).
The tests determined that when the morphogen’s activity is increased or decreased, there will be an increase or decrease in the number of bristles or ridges on the test subject. These effects matched exactly the effects predicted by Turing over 60 years ago.
Scientists only had speculative evidence, including Turing’s theory, to work with when identifying natural patterns up until now. The morphogens influence these natural patterns, including zebra stripes, vertebrae, hair or any other naturally spaced structures in biology.
