An international research team in including Christian
Schlötterer and Alistair McGregor of the Vetmeduni Vienna has discovered a
completely new mechanism by which evolution can change the appearance of an
organism. The researchers found that the
number of hairs on flies’ legs varies according to the level of activity of a
so-called microRNA. The results,
published in the journal Current Biology, shed a completely new light on the
molecular mechanisms of evolution.