…and this is a 
This one is for the bearded mo-bio types out there
Category: Humor • Molecular Biology
Posted on: December 22, 2006 6:00 PM, by PZ Myers
The rest of you might be totally lost. Here's a soon-to-be-classic paper on the characterization of the Hoho2 gene (292K pdf)—the Santa phenotype seems to represent an optimization for an arctic niche. They suggest the allele might have had an origin in Neandertal populations, but then they also show its effect in reindeer and E. coli (yes, they have beardy bacteria). It's a very confused paper.
In this paper we unequivocally identify and characterize the genetic determinant of the famous white beard of Santa Claus to be the ortholog of human KRT6B. The newly discovered gene is named Hoho2 for Human ortholog for hair ougmentation 2. The Santa gene Hoho2 is synthesized and codon optimized for codon expression. Successful heterologous protein expression is shown in three separate systems; E. coli, reindeer, and human. We further show that the bearded phenotype is tissue specific in mammalians, but not in prokaryotes. A Hoho2 specific RNAi knockout was constructed and shown to specifically disrupt the facial beard phenotype. Trans-complementation of the gene could be achieved using a synthetic RNAi resistant variant, indicating that the phenotype is truly a direct consequence of the Hoho2 gene and not due to indirect or off-target-effects on the phenotypic display.
The profile photo of that Wilkins guy looks like he might be a carrier—I just know he'll gag over Figure 4, though.
P.S. I've categorized this one as "Molecular biology" and "Humor". Do you know how rarely those two come together?
P.P.S. Everyone who reads the paper is probably going to come back and tell me why they don't go together very often.
Claes S, Reindeer R, Nicolas S, Tomte NE, Sridhar D, Elf J (2006) Heterologous expression and functional characterization of the Santa Hoho2 gene. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. Northpole 12:25-31.
Comments
As someone who did a lot of undergrad work with molecular biology (Coxiella burnetti gene products) I say there just aren't enough molecular biology jokes! Let them come!
Spaghetti Western Blot: The Good, the Bad, the Putative Gene Product.
MoBio has plenty of room for sexual innendos...
I work with nylon and strippers... Of course the strippers stink, but like real strippers you generally can't touch.
Okay okay... maybe there just shouldn't be any MoBio humor.
I'm glad I'm not saying this aloud. I'd be beaten for this... mwahahhahaa.
Posted by: Shawn S. | December 22, 2006 7:33 PM
Gotta love the list of references!
Posted by: coturnix | December 22, 2006 8:26 PM
Surely it should be the Hohoho2 gene.
Posted by: Terry | December 22, 2006 8:29 PM
I was a little disappointed to see that Dr. Felix Navidad was not credited for his contributions to the project.
Posted by: Sean Foley | December 22, 2006 9:04 PM
A transcription factor and a protein kinase walked into a bar...
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | December 22, 2006 9:40 PM
So, the article isn't for molecular biologists who happen to be women?
f
Or only women with beards?
:-)
Posted by: rosalind | December 22, 2006 10:20 PM
Well, it may be rare, but there is some very good molecular biology humor out there.
I can't find it at the moment (through Medline or Google) but in the early days of Genbank, someone published in Science or in Nature the results of someTBLAST queries showing that ELVIS was significantly more common than peptides of similar length and sequence (EKVIS, as I recall) or than other five-letter composers (HAYDN). The upshot was something along the lines of "Elvis Lives!".
Around the same time, another brief note in Science or in Nature revealed that Dr. Crichton, in his publication Jurassic Park, had inadvertantly sequenced his Vector DNA (pBR322, as I recall). And that evidence of his sloppiness was long before Crichon decided to slander everyone interested in our environment and, spectacularly, that writer for The New Republic.
Posted by: Warren Terra | December 22, 2006 10:29 PM
Warren, is this the article you're thinking of?
Posted by: RavenT | December 23, 2006 12:25 AM
And what about the classic film of a bunch of grad students (from Stanford, I think) acting out transcription and translation?
Posted by: Apikoros | December 23, 2006 12:41 AM
I don't know if it's the fact that I finished my grading this afternoon, or a side-effect of reading this blog, but I laughed out loud reading this piece-- and I'm just a philosopher. Maybe the audience for MoBio humour is wider than you think.
Posted by: Bryson Brown | December 23, 2006 1:12 AM
Theres going to be hell to pay here in Sweden over this paper. Where on earth is the ethical permission for using samples from the population of Burträstk hairy footers (Not to mention cloning four individuals !)?
That said, I think there is a need for such a journal (PseudoScience is a more suitable title I think! )for us scientists.
First to propogate in-jokes too nerdy for the rest of the population,
Second - to use as a training tool to show junior researchers how to write a scientific paper,
and third to finaly have a suitable place for the Discovery Institute to submit the results of their recent groundbreaking research !
Posted by: MartinC | December 23, 2006 4:12 AM
That said, I think there is a need for such a journal (PseudoScience is a more suitable title I think! )for us scientists.
You are, alas, unfamiliar with the Journal of Irreproducible Results.
Posted by: Graculus | December 23, 2006 8:10 AM
There are plenty of genes with ingenious names, like SUPERMAN and KRYPTONITE...
The book The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World has that famous sequence and explains that it contains a few too many amino acids, with the following one-letter codes: MARK WAS HERE NIH.
Posted by: David Marjanović | December 23, 2006 9:06 AM
Nice try but unfortunately the authors are operating under a false assumption.
Santa's beard is obviously not ordinary mammalian hair but beard lichen, making it/him the first known example of mammal/fungus/alga three-way symbiosis (unless sloths qualify?)
Posted by: windy | December 23, 2006 10:48 AM
And what about the classic film of a bunch of grad students (from Stanford, I think) acting out transcription and translation?
If it's the one I'm thinking of ("The Translation Jive Sutra," featuring excerpts from "Jabberwocky"), it was Berkeley.
Posted by: Sean Foley | December 23, 2006 11:08 AM
On a slightly related note (humor-wise) is a post here.
You have to slog through some surgical stuff to get to a holiday amusement from a surgeon. Don't mean to side-track this thread, but it's kinda cute.
Posted by: Sid Schwab | December 23, 2006 12:10 PM
...
...
Could *I* be a bearer of the gene?
...
...
Posted by: Hank Fox | December 23, 2006 1:14 PM
Darn. Thought I had that right. Anyway, the link goes to a pic of me with my Santa hat at www.HankFox.com .
Posted by: Hank Fox | December 23, 2006 1:15 PM
Warren, is this the article you're thinking of?
Posted by: RavenT | December 23, 2006 12:25 AM
I'm absolutely sure that the piece I recall had as its control queries the peptides EKVIS and HAYDN, and I'm pretty sure it was published (probably around April 1 of some year) as a brief communication in a research journal, so that can't be the one. It is similar, though, and thanks for pointing it out.
Ah, well. I've found it before when people disbelieved my assertions as to its existence, and at some point I'll care enough to find it again.
Posted by: Warren Terra | December 23, 2006 7:03 PM
Ah, there it is. I gave up on Medline and Google and searched Science through their own site. The paper is Immortal Sequence by Kaper and Mobley, in the August 30, 1991 issue of Science (depending on where you are, you might be able to access it at one of these two links).
The best line in the paper has got to be
(I was wrong in one detail; instead of EKVIS the control peptides were ELIIS and ELVIT, which are of course more closely conserved.)
Posted by: Warren Terra | December 23, 2006 11:53 PM
Posted by: llewelly | December 24, 2006 12:03 AM
Sorry for being a latecomer to this discussion. I'm however glad you appreciated our holiday greeting - The cloning of the Santa Hoho2 gene. The original pdf can still be found on our sitemap at www.DNA20.com. I can't tell you what a complete pain it was to make a transgenic reindeer...
Anyway, some of you may also be interested in our holiday card from last year (2005). For that greeting we went ahead and synthesized a gene that encodes the poem 'Tomten' (The Gnome) by Viktor Rydberg as spelled out in amino acids. A few ng of the synthetic poetry gene was attached on a filter to each physical card. Check it out at http://www.dna20.com/corp/TomtenFINAL.pdf
Posted by: claes Gustafsson | January 9, 2007 1:01 AM