Princeton geneticist solves long-standing finch beak mystery

(Princeton University) Princeton biologist Bridgett vonHoldt is best known for her work with canines, but when she compared the genes of large-beaked Cameroonian finches to those of their smaller-beaked counterparts, she found the answer to a 20-year old mystery: 300,000 base pairs, apparently inherited as a unit, always varied between them, and right in the middle of that genetic sequence was the well-known growth factor, IGF-1.
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: news