UF researchers find genetic change that caused snakes to lose legs

About 150 million years ago, snakes roamed about on well-developed legs. Now, two University of Florida researchers have discovered how snakes’ legs eventually disappeared.

Snakes lost their legs due to a trio of mutations in a genetic switch — known as an enhancer — that controls the activity of a gene required for limb development, according to research by Martin Cohn, Ph.D., a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology in the UF College of Medicine, and Ph.D. candidate Francisca Leal. The findings appear today (Oct. 20) in the journal Current Biology.