Shad Jimmy, Biswas Rakesh
Department of General Surgery, People's College of Medical Sciences & Research Centre Bhopal, Bhopal, India.
BMJ Case Rep. 2012 Apr 17;2012:bcr1120115160. doi: 10.1136/bcr.11.2011.5160.
There are several human atavisms that reflect our common genetic heritage with other mammals. One of the most striking is the existence of the rare 'true human tail'. It is a rare event with fewer than 40 cases reported in the literature. The authors report a case of an infant born with the true tail. A 3-month-old baby girl, presented with an 11 cm long tail, which was successfully surgically removed. Human embryos normally have a prenatal tail, which disappears in the course of embryogenesis by programmed cell death. Recent advances in genetic research reveal that 'of those organs lost, in evolution, most species carry 'genetic blue prints'. Thus, rarely the appearance of ancient organs like tail may be the result of re-expression of these switched off gene.
有几种人类返祖现象反映了我们与其他哺乳动物共有的基因遗传。其中最显著的一种是罕见的“真正的人类尾巴”的存在。这是一个罕见事件，文献报道的病例不到40例。作者报告了一例出生时带有真正尾巴的婴儿病例。一名3个月大的女婴，尾巴长11厘米，已通过手术成功切除。人类胚胎通常有一条产前尾巴，在胚胎发育过程中通过程序性细胞死亡而消失。遗传研究的最新进展表明，“在进化过程中失去的那些器官中，大多数物种都携带‘基因蓝图’”。因此，像尾巴这样的古老器官很少出现可能是这些被关闭基因重新表达的结果。
