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Spots, stripes and more: Working out the logic of animal patterns
More than 70 years ago, mathematician Alan Turing proposed a mechanism that explained how patterns could emerge from bland uniformity. Scientists are still using his model — and adding new twists — to gain a deeper understanding of animal markings.
In 2012, by examining the skin of developing felines such as tabby housecats and the boldly splotched king cheetah, the researchers began to suss out the elements of the prepattern. The team recently took their work further, identifying a gene called Dkk4 that seems to produce a Turing Inhibitor; it’s turned on in the skin of fetal cats before any coloring-in takes place. The pair have been linked to Turing patterning in a system not directly related to color: In mice, interactions between Wnts as activators and Dkks as inhibitors lead to evenly spaced hair follicles in the developing skin.
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