A cetacean-specific CNE suppresses osteogenesis to drive appendicular modification in secondary aquatic adaptation
Yao Liu, Zhenhua Zhang, Fenli Zhang, Shixia Xu, Guang Yang · 2026
Read A cetacean-specific CNE suppresses osteogenesis to drive appendicular modification in secondary aquatic adaptation by Yao Liu, Zhenhua Zhang, Fenli Zhang, Shixia Xu, Guang Yang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13571659.txt.
Description
Yao Liu and co-authors pin a DNA dimmer switch that helped whales and dolphins trade legs for flippers. The switch is a conserved non-coding stretch found only in cetaceans. It evolved fast and tests weak in cell assays. Their 2026 study swaps the whale version into mice. The knock-in pups grow shorter limb bones with sparser inner scaffolding. That echoes the cetacean limb story.
Gene reads in embryo limb buds tilt toward cartilage programs. Later bone building runs low while bone removal stays normal. Less bone made, not more bone lost, drives the change. The team casts the element as a working driver of limb reshaping in sea-going mammals.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yao Liu, Zhenhua Zhang, Fenli Zhang, Shixia Xu, Guang Yang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 48 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |