Gene Names -

In earlier posts we talked about genes, RNA, and proteins. Genes are stretches of DNA that contain the information necessary to make proteins, the stuff that makes all of our cells work.

We are going to start talking about specific genes more and more in these posts. To do this we will name them and then describe as succinctly as possible what we know of their functions.

The names will appear very strange to most readers. The point of the names, like in other aspects of description, is to distinguish them from each other. Since the genes were often discovered before their function was known, the names can appear to be arbitrary. Making matters worse, different labs studying the same gene often give it different names unknowingly.

But, occasionally gene names actually come from how a mutation behaves in a model system [read more on why we use model systems in research here], like Hedgehog or Sonic hedgehog (abbreviated as HH or SHH).

A mutation in the fruit fly in the Hedgehog gene makes the young larvae (the developmental stage of the fly where it’s crawling around on a banana peel before it metamorphoses into an actual fly) look all spiky, much like a hedgehog (or porcupine).

When the same Hedgehog gene was discovered in mouse and man it needed to have a name that distinguished it from the fruit fly (it is not identical in all three species, just very much alike). The scientists that found it named it after the spiky haired video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog!

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Originally published at lcresearchcenter.tumblr.com.