Things that are awesome

The other day in class while I was struggling to keep my eyes open during another lecture on developemental disorders in Pathology, something caught my attention. Mind you, I generally do pay attention in Path, it's one of the most interesting classes we've got this block, plus I think developemental disorders are fascinating, but this is the second time around we've heard about most of these, so it gets a bit old.
Anyway.
So apparently clyclopia, eg. being born with only one eye, can be caused by a mutation in the sonic hedgehog gene...
I'll say it again, the SONIC HEDGEHOG GENE.

so


(As an aside, oh my dear goodness don't ever google image search "cyclopia" unless you want to be treated with images that will fuel your nightmares for years to come...)

Anyway, so this piqued my curiosity so I did a little research to find out what was going on here. It turns out that the Sonic Hedgehog gene is one of a set of other hedgehog genes, the other two being the less exciting Desert Hedgehog and Indian Hedgehog. Apparently the homologous structure in the zebrafish was at one time called the Tiggywinkle Hedgehog gene though, which is also fantastic.
The Hedgehog proteins are so named because in the fruit fly, if you create a mutant with nonfunctioning copies of this gene, the resulting embryo has little spiny projections all over it. Sonic the gene just happened to be discovered right around the same time that the original blue hedgehog debuted to the gaming world and, well, scientists are nerds.
The little Sonic Hedgehog is actually seriously seriously important to proper growth and development of embryos, for everything from spinal cord formation to parts of the brain to limbs. While fruit flies apparently get cool spikes if they knock out this gene, most vertebrates will just get terrible deformities. Sonic is part of the morphologic set of genes that guides the proper patterning of body systems.
So everybody with two functioning eyes and the normal complement of limbs, you can thank Sonic Hedgehog, toiling away in your embryonic cells for you.



Incidently, apparently there is an inhibitor to the Sonic pathway that has been dubbed Robotnikinin.
And that's just awesome.