Genetic anomaly: how people without fingerprints live and travel

22-year-old Apu Sarker lives with his family in a village in the northern district of Rajshahi (Bangladesh). Until recently, he worked as a paramedic. His father and grandfather were farmers. The men in the Apu family have a very rare genetic mutation - they have no fingerprints. It is believed that this anomaly exists in only a few families around the world. An unusual story about life without fingerprints was told by the publication with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

In the days of Grandfather Apu, the absence of fingerprints did not matter much.

“I don’t think he thought it was a problem at all,” the grandson says.

But over the decades, tiny grooves on the tips of the fingers, known as dermatoglyphs, have become the world's most popular biometric. We use them everywhere - from airports to voting to smartphones.

In 2008, when Apu was still a boy, Bangladesh introduced government identification cards for all adults, and fingerprints had to be entered into the database. The embarrassed workers did not know how to issue a certificate to Apu's father, Amal Sarker. Finally, he received a card that said "no fingerprints."

In 2010, fingerprints became mandatory for passports and driver's licenses. After several attempts, Amal, showing a certificate from a medical institution, was able to obtain a passport. However, he never used it, in particular because he is afraid of the problems he might face at the airport. Although he needs to ride a motorcycle for his agricultural work, he never had a driver's license.

“I paid the fee, took the exam, but they didn’t issue the certificate because I couldn’t provide my fingerprints,” he said.

Amal has a license fee receipt, but that doesn't always help when he gets stopped - he's already been fined twice. He told both confused officers about his illness and showed them his fingers - but neither of them canceled the fine.

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“I always feel embarrassed in these situations,” Amal explained.

In 2016, the government made it mandatory to provide fingerprints even if a SIM card was purchased for a mobile phone.

“When I came to buy a SIM card, they were confused, their software froze every time I put my finger on the sensor,” Apu said.

The SIM card was never sold to him, so all the men in his family use cards issued in the name of his mother.

A rare condition that the Sarker family seem to suffer from is called adermatoglyphia. For the first time, it became widely known in 2007, when a young woman came to the Swiss dermatologist Peter Itina, who had problems entering the United States. The person's face matched the photograph in the passport, but the customs officers were unable to record her fingerprints. Because she didn't have them.

Upon examination, Professor Itin discovered that the woman and eight members of her family had the same strange symptoms - flat fingertips and a reduced number of sweat glands in the hands. Working with fellow dermatologist Eli Sprecher and graduate student Gianni Nosbeck, Professor Itin looked at the DNA of 16 family members: seven with fingerprints and nine without.

“Isolated cases are very rare and generally no more than a few families have been documented,” Professor Itin said.

In 2011, the team drew attention to the SMARCAD1 gene, which had mutated in nine non-fingerprint family members, and identified it as the cause of a rare disease. By that time, practically nothing was known about the gene. The mutation did not appear to cause any other health effects other than the hands.

The mutation they were looking for affected a gene that Sprecher said no one knew anything about—which is why it took years to figure it out. Specifically, the mutation affected a very specific part of the gene.

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The disease was called adermatoglyphia, but Professor Itin called it “immigration delay disease” after its first patients were unable to enter the United States, and it took root.

This disease can manifest itself over several generations. Uncle Apu Sarker Gopesh, who lives in Dinajpur, about 350 km from Dhaka, waited two years for his passport.

“I had to go to Dhaki four or five times in the last two years to convince them that I really had this disease,” he says.

When his work introduced a fingerprint attendance system, Gopesh had to convince his superiors to allow him to use the old system - to sign the attendance sheet every day.

A dermatologist in Bangladesh diagnosed the family with congenital palmoplantar keratoderma, which Professor Itin said had developed into secondary adermatoglyphia, a type of condition that can cause dry skin and decreased sweating on the palms and feet. Sarkers complain of these symptoms.

To confirm the presence of a certain form of adermatoglyphia in the family, additional tests will need to be carried out. Prof Sprecher says his team would be delighted to help the family with genetic testing. The results of these tests may add certainty to the Sarkers, but will not bring relief to daily life without fingerprints.

For affected Sarkers, modern society seems to be becoming increasingly less accommodating - rather than taking their illness into account and helping them adapt accordingly. Amal Sarker lived most of his life without any problems, but now he feels sorry for his children.

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“I am very pained by the problems that my sons and I face,” he laments.

Amal and Apu recently received a new type of government ID after presenting a medical certificate. The card also uses other biometric data - retinal scanning and facial recognition.

But they still cannot purchase a SIM card or obtain a driver’s license, and obtaining a passport is generally a long and problematic process.

“I’m tired of constantly explaining my situation. I asked many people for advice, but none of them could give me a concrete answer,” says Apu. “Some suggested that I go to court. If other options don't work, you may have to do this."

Apu hopes he can get a passport. He really wants to go outside Bangladesh.

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