can some one help me out and tell me how gene regulation explains biological diversity?

Question

thanks :)

Answer 1

Well, it doesn't EXPLAIN diversity, but it does lend a good deal of evidence towards evolutionary study.

The best example I can give you is the horse.

Modern horses evolved from multi-toed grazing animals over the last several million years. One of the neat tricks that has taken place is the regulation of genes that lead to the development of multiple toes. The genes that lead to toes beyond the middle growing and developing are restricted - they do not turn on while the horse is growing in the womb. This means that those toes, although they are coded for in the horse's DNA, never grow.

However, every now and then there's a horse born that has multiple toes (they're usually pathetic little dangling things, but they're definitely toes, with fur and nails and everything). This is because, for some reason, those gene inhibitors that regulate the toe genes don't work - so the genes get switched on, toes grow, and the horse has to buy gloves instead of mittens.