Proper patterning of self-renewing organs, like the hair follicle, requires exquisite regulation of growth signals. Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling in skin controls the growth and morphogenesis of hair follicle epithelium in part through regulating the Gli transcription factors
Sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH) is one of three proteins in the mammalian signaling pathway family called hedgehog, the others being desert hedgehog (DHH) and Indian hedgehog (IHH).
Well I can’t pretend to understand what that really means but it immediately made me wonder if it could possibly mean that hedgehogs produce corkscrew-shaped follicles which do after all provide the explanation for curly hair (as we were taught in O level biology more than half a century ago).
And how, if at all, does it fit with the idea that (in dogs at least) it’s a variant of KR171?
I thought I had not come across the idea of a gene called hedgehog before, but it was one of those mentioned in a very enjoyable programme on Radio 4 about the namimg of genes.
