Adventures in embryology

[elizabethoshea]

Fun discovery of the day: the 'sonic hedgehog' gene (vital to foetal organogenesis/differentiation). At last, a gene name I'm unlikely to forget!

Comments

[empty_mirrors]

How the hell did it get a name like that?

[elizabethoshea]

I think geneticists just get bored with mapping the human genome and start coming up with bizarre names to break the monotony . That one's part of a whole series of hedgehog genes (Indian Hedgehog, echidna hedgehog etc). I'm not sure what that says about your average geneticist, but it certainly helps to make them more memorable!

There's a move to go back to nice, safe initials at the moment, though - someone pointed out that it's difficult to maintain a suitably professional demeanour when breaking the news to a family that their child's life-threatening abnormality is caused by a defect in its sonic hedgehog gene...

[empty_mirrors]

Heeee!

Just tell me it doesn't cause spikeyheadedness and a tendency to bounce.

*has very bad taste*

[elizabethoshea]

Nah. That'd be the, no doubt soon to be discovered, Tigger gene