Patterns of fingerprint — circular, wavy, or winding are related to genes that are responsible for limb development rather than those for skin patterning as per a study published in the journal Cell.

Fingerprints are universally known to be unique to individuals. However, they are generally of three types — arch, loop, and whorl. The present study may help scientists in better understanding the association between genes and phenotypical traits in humans.

“People may wonder why our team is working on fingerprints. We started the work purely out of curiosity. However, later it turns out fingerprint pattern is associated with genes for limb growth, which are critical for fetal development. This provides another classic example of pleiotropy when multiple phenotypes are interrelated to each other and are affected by the same genes,” says Sijia Wang, a geneticist at the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-senior author of the paper.