Progressive Loss of Function in a Limb Enhancer During Snake Evolution (2016)

cell.com

I had to click through. I thought this was about neuronal deactivation in "smart" artificial hands, playing the phone game too much causing some kind of fatigue.

It's about how limbless creatures emerge under genetic pressure from evolution, from the common fetal form which includes information to develop limbs.

How in the name of sweet balrog did a genetic process get called sonic hedgehog?

Dunno, but it reminds me to some lyrics from a Despacito science parody you might find amusing, which touches on snakes' additional vertebra, and also "Sonic" which might be an oblique reference I didn't catch before.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ydqReeTV_vk

Yes, the part about Sonic Hedgehog and "distal aminos" refer to a similar subject to the paper.

> How in the name of sweet balrog did a genetic process get called sonic hedgehog?

Researchers that discover things can name it wherever they want. This family of genes are all named after hedgehogs because it makes fruit fly embryos spiky if you knock the gene out.

From a google search:

> A picture can tell 1000 words - a look at drosophila hedgehog mutant

https://x.com/KirkMMaxey/status/577886323912015872

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