Blink Once If You Can Hear Me

[drhoz]

In responce to tetrabinary's post about the mutant piggy,and the quote from the article "and local vets are nonplussed as to the origin of the genetic mutation."

THey must have been pretty ignorant vets then, because that sort of defect is caused by overexpression of the Sonic Hedgehog genes. Shh is one of three proteins in the mammalian hedgehog

Comments

[chromegadget]

I've heard of the Sonic hedgehog gene, but not the others...that's really interesting!

[drhoz]

isn't it, tho? it's all so fascinating :D

[lil_shepherd]

You also get a lot of congenital deformities in kittens, particularly missing parts of the skeleton.

[ebenizer]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c2e_1197785746

is this the baby you referred to?

[drhoz]

actually no - the example I was thinking of was an adult. but ta for the link - tragic but interesting

[ebenizer]

do you know what happend with this one?

[drhoz]

no, nor can get video to load, will try again later.

[synchra]

hahaha I work at Sega.. I didn't know there was a gene named after sonic, I am so amused now.

[aidosaur]

YESSSSS, thank you for sharing the messybeast site. I read it through some time back, but it has grown substantially since then! (and has been better organized) I was hoping to do a post some time in the future about polydactyly, or polycephaly, but it looks like you've beaten me to the punch on all accounts.

It is my life goal to one day have a polydactyl cat. I look them up on a relatively regular basis on petfinder and coo.

[drhoz]

feel free to post better examples if you find any :)

[slowpurple]

I have a polydactyl cat that I adopted from the shelter. We didn't even realize she had extra toes until I picked her up to take her to the car.

Mine can't use her extra toes as thumbs, but they are fully operational with retractable claws and whatnot.

[rime_r]

I saw these really cute polydactyl kittens in the local shelter, and wanted one. Freak-kitties :D And I mean seriously polydactyl, like one had maybe 7 toes on one foot. She was scaling the side of the cage like a mountaineer.