Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is a glycoprotein secreted by epithelial cells at the mesenchymal interface and is involved in proliferation, embryonic patterning, and cell fate determination in developing tissues.
What type of signaling is Sonic hedgehog?
Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signalling pathway is one of the major trafficking networks that regulates the key events during developmental processes i.e growth and patterning of multicellular embryos.
What type of protein is Sonic hedgehog?
Sonic Hedgehog Protein (SHH) is a protein within the Hedgehog family of growth factors. This monomer is encoded for by the shh gene and has a final translated product of approximately 462 amino acids and a molecular mass of 45 kDa.
Is Sonic hedgehog a transcription factor?
Sonic Hedgehog Signaling SMO activation initiates transcription of GLI transcription factors which are involved in several developmental and morphogenetic processes. SHH is expressed in hindgut-derived structures including the cloacal epithelium, where it patterns the surrounding mesenchyme.
Why is the protein called sonic hedgehog?
The mammalian hedgehog protein, sonic hedgehog (SHH) was named by a postdoc in Cliff Tabin’s lab who took inspiration from a comic book his daughter was reading. SHH is involved in the hedgehog signalling pathway, which is a key regulator of all bilateral animal development.
Why is it called sonic hedgehog mutation?
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.
Is Sonic hedgehog a Hox gene?
Sonic hedgehog is an endodermal signal inducing Bmp-4 and Hox genes during induction and regionalization of the chick hindgut. Development. 1995 Oct;121(10):3163-74.
How does Sonic Hedgehog pathway work?
The hedgehog signaling pathway is a mechanism that directs the development of embryonic cells in animals, from invertebrates to vertebrates. The hedgehog signaling pathway is a system of genes and gene products, mostly proteins, that convert one kind of signal into another, called transduction.
How is the Hedgehog pathway activated?
This pathway is activated during binding of sonic HH (SHH) or Indian hedgehog (IHH) ligand to their receptors, Patched (PTCH).
What protein does the SHH gene encode?
The SHH gene encodes sonic hedgehog, a secreted protein that is involved in establishing cell fates at several points during development.
What animals have the Sonic hedgehog gene?
Unlike drosophila and other invertebrates, which only have a single hh gene, vertebrates have a family of genes that are homologous to the hh gene. Mammals have three genes with homology to the hh gene. These comprise Sonic hedgehog (Shh), Indian hedgehog (Ihh), and Desert hedgehog (Dhh).
What is hedgehog science?
Summary. The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is one of the fundamental signal transduction pathways in animal development and is also involved in stem-cell maintenance and carcinogenesis. The hedgehog (hh) gene was first discovered in Drosophila, and members of the family have since been found in most metazoa.
What are hedgehog target genes?
Target genes of the Hh signaling pathway are cell type-dependent. In most cells responsive to Hh, the common target genes are Ptch and Gli1 (Stamataki et al., 2005; Cohen et al., 2015; Tickle and Towers, 2017). In the developing neural tube, the Nkx6.
Where is SHH expressed?
In vertebrates, shh is expressed in the midline central nervous system (CNS), the notochord and the limb bud zone of polarizing activity (ZPA), and the secreted shh protein is an inductive signal in the patterning of the ventral neural tube, the anterior-posterior limb axis and the ventral somites (16–19).
Who discovered the Sonic hedgehog gene?
Kat: We can thank Bob Riddle, one of the researchers who discovered the mammalian Hedgehog genes for this one, as he apparently spotted the infamous blue character in one of his daughter’s comic books.
When was the Sonic Hedgehog pathway discovered?
The hedgehog (Hh) gene was identified in 1980 through genetic analysis of segmentation of fruit fly Drosophila (Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus, 1980).
How was hedgehog gene named?
Each of the three genes, vertebrate versions of the “hedgehog” gene originally identified in fruit flies, would be named after species of real hedgehogs.
What are two ways in which Sonic hedgehog is critical for the development of the central nervous system?
SHH is an essential morphological gene during the development of nervous systems. SHH exerts a critical function on promoting cell proliferation and differentiation, maintaining the integrity of blood–brain barrier, and protecting cells from oxidative stress (Xia et al., 2012).
Is the SHH gene a Hox gene?
Another function of Hox genes that has emerged recently is to regulate expression of the Sonic hedgehog gene (Shh) which controls patterning of distal structures. Hox genes also play a major role in development of the digits.
What is the role of SHH in limb development?
Shh has also been shown to control the width of the limb bud by stimulating mesenchyme cell proliferation and by regulating the antero-posterior length of the apical ectodermal ridge, the signaling region required for limb bud outgrowth and the laying down of structures along the proximo-distal axis (e.g., shoulder to …
What controls Hox genes?
Regulation of Hox genes In Drosophila and some insects (but not most animals), Hox genes are regulated by gap genes and pair-rule genes, which are in their turn regulated by maternally-supplied mRNA.
What does SHH stand for in biology?
The SHH gene provides instructions for making a protein called Sonic Hedgehog. This protein functions as a chemical signal that is essential for embryonic development.
What is the role of a hedgehog?
The Hedgehog (Hh) family of proteins control cell growth, survival, and fate, and pattern almost every aspect of the vertebrate body plan.
How do hedgehog inhibitors work?
Hedgehog pathway inhibitors are a relatively new class of therapeutic agents that act by targeting the proteins involved in the regulation of Hh pathway (PTCH, SMO and Gli). Together, they serve as exciting new prospects, with a bright future, both alone or as an adjuvant to the more traditional anti-cancer drugs.
What does SHH bind to?
The modified and active form of SHH binds to its transmembrane receptor Patched (PTCH1). SHH binding to PTCH1 inhibits the activity of the transmembrane protein Smoothened (SMO).