Sonic Hedgehog

So, i was studying DBG this morning and came about the SHH gene (Sonic hedgehog gene). In our minds, sonic hedgehog looks like this :

But in DBG, the sonic hedgehog looks like this:

Haha, see the similarity? :D

So, i got interested in why it is called the sonic hedgehog gene when the SHH is a hedgehog signaling pathway. Point mutation on the SHH gene, one can get holoprosencephaly. which is this :

http://www.prayfornathan.org/images/IMG_1347%202.jpg

Nah, this little boy here is a very fortunate survivor of this disease. And I'm really glad that he doesn't have facial defects from this disease. Because the facial defects can be really bad. ( Don't try to google search image for this disease, you won't want to see what you find. really). But anyway, here's one of the more lookable image of this disease to see its severity :

http://download.imaging.consult.com/ic/images/S1933033207751595/gr2-midi.jpg

But anyway, i was interested why is this gene called the Sonic Hedgehog gene, and here's what i've found:

Sonic hedgehog is, in fact, named after the character from the popular Sega Genesis video game. The original hedgehog gene was found in Drosophila and was named for the appearance of the mutant phenotype which causes an embryo to be covered with pointy denticles resembling a hedgehog. The first two homologues of hedgehog were named after species of hedgehog and the third was named after the video game character (Gilbert, 2000).

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Courses/Molbio/MolStudents/spring2003/Watson/Sonichedgehog.htm

So, the first 2 hedgehog was actually named as desert hedgehog (dhh), and indian hedgehog (ihh). Then the guy, decided to name the third one after the video game - Sonic Hedgehog (shh).

Now this solved the question I always ask myself in class, why Sonic Hedgehog?

Alright, enough about this gene. just wanted to share. I'm sure my classmates will appreciate:D

Anyway,

I was typing my CCTA notes yesterday, and was terribly annoyed with microsoft words. The system doesn't recognize scientific words. Even ligands were underlined red. 

And my notes looked like this :

So, i was really sad. ): When I'm typing super long words, I don't know if i have a missing letter or additional letter or it is spelled correctly, because either ways, it will be underlined red.

Alright, back to my DBG notes:D (I'm so glad I'm studying DBG and not CCTA).