National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: "Hobbits" May Have Been Genetic Mutants


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

Normal human fibroblast cells grow on a glass slide, with the protein pericentrin stained in red.

A new study has found that defects in the gene encoding pericentrin are responsible for a rare growth condition, which the scientists say could explain the size of the 18,000-year-old "hobbit" fossil found recently in Indonesia.

The protein helps control the separation of chromosomes during cell division, which is essential to growth.

Image courtesy Anita Rauch/Science