A No-Fingerprint Disease? Scientists Discover The Rare Genetic Mutation Responsible For Adermatoglyphia

Imagine being born without fingerprints.

Well, it's a real occurrence for at least four extended families throughout the world affected by a rare disease called adermatoglyphia, and researchers say they might have found the cause: a small genetic mutation, according to a study published in The American Journal of Human Genetics on Aug. 4.

Researchers studied the DNA of 16 members of a Swiss family affected by the disease. Nine of the 16 members did not have normal fingerprints, according to National Geographic. After examining several genes, researchers found that all nine members affected by the disease had mutations in the short version of the SMARCAD1 gene, found in the skin.

Those with the disease are born without the ridges on fingerprints. Adermatoglyphia also affects palms, toes and soles and might lead those affected to have an unusual number of sweat glands but isn't harmful, Health Day News reports.

Oddly enough, this isn't the only disease that results in irregular fingerprints. Similar conditions have been nicknamed "immigration delay diseases," because of the trouble those affected by the diseases face when they want to cross international borders. Two other diseases, Naegeli syndrome and dermatopathia pigmentosa reticularis (or DPR), have left some frustrated when it comes to travel or basic employment procedures, the National Geographic reports.

In a 2006 interview, Cheryl Maynard of Fairfax Virginia told National Geographic that technicians were perplexed after she applied for a job at a jail facility.

"I kept hearing, Of course you have fingerprints. And five or six different technicians were telling one another, You're doing this wrong, let me do this. I have to tell them I was born without them," she said.