[HN Gopher] Sonic hedgehog protein
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Sonic hedgehog protein
Author : eigenvalue
Score : 41 points
Date : 2023-01-26 21:06 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| bitwize wrote:
| A chemical that suppresses sonic hedgehog gene expression is
| called robotnikinin, after Dr. Robotnik (now Dr. Eggman).
|
| As a Sonic fan since the early 90s, this makes me happy.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Robotnikinin
|
| This made my day.
| phkahler wrote:
| GP was not a joke!
| tedunangst wrote:
| How is the list of biological processes ordered? Why is negative
| regulation of cell differentiation so far away from positive
| regulation of cell differentiation?
| tejtm wrote:
| Names from days before the "Nomenclature Committee".
|
| There are good reasons why the process went to committee but
| "shh" (for zebrafish) was not it.
|
| Also when you think 'researcher'; in some cases it may help to
| picture collage students between parties.
|
| [] https://www.genenames.org/
| rezonant wrote:
| These days photomontage students get all the research
| accolades. No one appreciates the work that goes into a quality
| collage any more.
| LarsDu88 wrote:
| I actually PhD interviewed with the discoverer of this one!
| mcbuilder wrote:
| It's not that different than naming a Protein by a Greek god or
| goddess, is it?
| bitwize wrote:
| There was controversy surrounding the name. If you're a doctor
| telling parents that their child is sick because of a defect in
| the sonic hedgehog protein, they're going to think you're
| trolling them. So these days they just tend to use
| abbreviations like SHH, and for new genes and proteins there is
| a standard nomenclature.
|
| One of the lessons we've learned since the 90s is that cute
| names (for genes, proteins, servers, programming languages,
| etc.) can be inadvertently problematic or made retroactively
| problematic, and are better off avoided.
| b800h wrote:
| Do we use this expression "problematic" to make an objective
| statement by side-stepping the subjective term "offensive"?
| bitwize wrote:
| It just means "causes a problem".
|
| I have proposed the use of "marginalizing" as a replacement
| for "offensive" in the sense of "reinforces systemic biases
| against certain groups of people", after I saw character on
| a British procedural say "Don't call somebody 'hot' or 'a
| lush'; it's marginalising."
| bawolff wrote:
| Seesh its just a synonym. The english language is full of
| them.
| aquafox wrote:
| There are lots of other strange sounding proteins in biology, e.g
| Dickkopf (DKK), which is german for 'thick head', because
| increased Dickkopf-1 makes large heads in a certain tadpole
| species. There are also toll-like receptors ('toll' being german
| for 'yay'), because their discoverer, Nobel laurate Christiane
| Nusslein-Volhard, was very excited when she found them.
| type0 wrote:
| a whole list of these
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_biological_nam...
| kelseyfrog wrote:
| While the name might be cute to a researcher, it puts clinicians
| in a difficult position. Imagine facing parents and having to
| break to them the terrible news that their child has a problem
| with their Sonic the Hedgehog gene. What an awful injection of
| whimsy when none is welcome.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| Just call it the SHH gene. This level of detail is hardly
| necessary to begin with.
| klyrs wrote:
| I don't know about you, but when my doctor throws a bunch of
| acronyms at me, I always ask what they mean. If nothing else,
| it slows down the torrent of information enough for me to
| process what I'm hearing. But I know enough greek and latin
| roots that it usually helps my memory file the information
| away for future retrieval.
|
| Sometimes doctors get offended at having to explain what's
| going on to the patient. Those are bad doctors.
| [deleted]
| jacobriis wrote:
| "While the name might be cute to a researcher, it puts
| clinicians in a difficult position... What an awful injection
| of whimsy when none is welcome." [1]
|
| I can't imagine being placed in this position where I may have
| to occasionally abbreviate the name of this protein SHH. Very
| difficult, just awful. Not welcome!
| ryanmcbride wrote:
| I really doubt any clinician would say the full name when
| breaking the news. They'd probably just abbreviate it.
| abcc8 wrote:
| Exacrly, they would say the test detected a pathogenic
| variant in the SHH gene.
| willcipriano wrote:
| "I'm sorry, it's a problem with your Sonic the Hedgehog gene.
| In layman's terms, your gonna go fast."
| beowulfey wrote:
| That's the drosophila field for you. All about the silly names
| renewiltord wrote:
| Sometimes I wonder if I am a normal human being, and then I
| realize that I'm not. I must be some kind of superhuman.
|
| Less than a year ago I was told I had a C6 and C7 fracture, a
| manubrial fracture, a scapular fracture, a few metacarpal
| fractures, rib fractures, a splenic laceration.
|
| Despite the Corvette C6 and C7 being some of my favourite cars,
| when I was eventually discharged I could not find it in me to
| take my AR-15 to SF Gen and unleash retribution for the
| horrendous crime the doctors had done to me. In addition, a
| _man_ ubrial fracture? So I 'm not a _man_ anymore?! Ugh. Urge
| to kill rising!
| bilsbie wrote:
| You could say that about almost anything though. Why make life
| sterile and boring just because things can be good or bad.
|
| For example ships can't have fun names because they
| occasionally sink?
| s0rce wrote:
| What is the titanic was Boaty McBoatface!
| jamal-kumar wrote:
| The gene has been linked to a condition known as
| holoprosencephaly, which can result in severe brain, skull and
| facial defects, causing a few clinicians and scientists to
| criticize the name on the grounds that it sounds too frivolous.
| It has been noted that mention of a mutation in a sonic
| hedgehog gene might not be well received in a discussion of a
| serious disorder with a patient or their family.[17][89][90]
| This controversy has largely died down, and the name is now
| generally seen as a humorous relic of the time before the rise
| of fast, cheap complete genome sequencing and standardized
| nomenclature.[91] The problem of the "inappropriateness" of the
| names of genes such as "Mothers against decapentaplegic",
| "Lunatic fringe", and "Sonic hedgehog" is largely avoided by
| using standardized abbreviations when speaking with patients
| and their families.[92]
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog_protein#Former_...
| uoaei wrote:
| It sounds like a great tool to use to soften the blow when
| telling the child.
|
| "Hey Timmy, we got our results back, and we found out you have
| the _Sonic the Hedgehog gene_. It might be scary but if you can
| be as brave and tough as Sonic everyone will be very proud of
| you. "
|
| Try to remember what it is like to be a child.
| tadfisher wrote:
| I would hope they have the SHH protein, all animals do.
| uoaei wrote:
| Sorry, meant to refer to mutations in the gene, as in GGP's
| comment.
| HarryHirsch wrote:
| I am vicarially embarrassed for you because of your lack of
| tact and life experience.
| uoaei wrote:
| Based on my vote count I think your opinion represents the
| minority.
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| "Two of these genes, desert hedgehog and Indian hedgehog, were
| named for species of hedgehogs, while sonic hedgehog was named
| after the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog.[15][16] The
| gene was named by Robert Riddle, a postdoctoral fellow at the
| Tabin Lab, after his wife Betsy Wilder came home with a magazine
| containing an advert for the game Sonic the Hedgehog.[17][18][19]
| In the zebrafish, two of the three vertebrate hh genes are
| duplicated: SHH a[20] and SHH b[21] (formerly described as
| tiggywinkle hedgehog, named for Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, a character
| from Beatrix Potter's books for children) and ihha and ihhb[22]
| (formerly described as echidna hedgehog, named for the spiny
| anteater and not for the character Knuckles the Echidna in the
| Sonic franchise)."
| globular-toast wrote:
| This came up on a slide in a biology lecture I attended. I was
| the only computer science student present and did a double take
| when I saw it. I asked the lecturer if I had read correctly and
| she confirmed. Nobody else in the room found it amusing. If
| anything I think they found the novelty names tiresome.
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