Does anybody know why complement control proteins (also short consensus repeats) are called "sushi" proteins? Is there any special reason for their name?
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2Hi Welcome to Bio.SE. Your question could use a tad more context to demonstrate that you've tried answering this on your own. We always ask that the asker provide evidence of prior research. See here. Thanks. – theforestecologist Apr 25 '17 at 12:53
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2People who discover things have some small reward in being able to name it whatever they want within reason. There's a moth with donald trump like hair which was named after him, and some proteins have incredible names (my current amazement is with the sonic hedgehog protein.) Sometimes - after a while - the names are changed if particularly ridiculous. Sometimes not (luciferin is a prime, imaginative example.) – anongoodnurse Apr 25 '17 at 15:49
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@anon Biologists, in particular, like to be clever/creative with how they name things, but it has gotten them in a bit of trouble in the biomedical area. It turns out that when patients have some kind of debilitating disease, it doesn't go over particularly well when the doctor starts trying to explain to the family what causes the disease, and some protein or gene with a funny name is implicated. There have been movements to change some of the real zingers that arise most often in clinical cases, but inertia has gotten in the way (plus some resistance from those of us with a sense of humor). – Cody Gray - on strike Apr 25 '17 at 16:03
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@CodyGray - Yep. Am following the controversy around sonic hedgehog and personally think, out of respect for the devastating illness it is associated with, it should be changed. But I might feel differently if I were the biologist involved. In this case, though.... I would not have named it sonic. – anongoodnurse Apr 25 '17 at 16:09
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1@anon Oh, you had cited Sonic Hedgehog, but I didn't realize you already knew of the controversy surrounding it. The reason for the "Sonic", though, is that this is actually the fourth protein in a class of developmental-patterning proteins. The others are named after real species of hedgehogs: Indian hedgehog, desert hedgehog, and moonrat hedgehog. So it's not like someone just pulled the name completely out of the blue. No one ever talks about it, but I don't think those affected would feel much better telling them they had a defect in their moonrat hedgehog gene, either. :-) – Cody Gray - on strike Apr 25 '17 at 16:13
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@CodyGray - :) Thanks. I do understand the natural progression, but knowing the disease associated with it does (or should, imo) have some bearing on the name. For example, if there were a group of proteins called "camper proteins" that caused serious mental handicaps, I would not like to see one named happy camper, no matter how humorous that is. But, it's not in my hands, I'm glad to say. – anongoodnurse Apr 25 '17 at 16:14
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@anongoognurse I believe the naming preceded the discovery of the diseases it caused. – canadianer Apr 25 '17 at 16:25
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4Note that most (all?) of these names come from experiments in Drosophila. That the human homologs kept the same name is another issue. And if you think sonic is bad, consider sevenless, son of sevenless, junk (JNK) and smack, mothers against decapentaplegia (mad), the list goes on. Drosophilists are kinda weird :P – terdon Apr 25 '17 at 16:27
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1@anongoodnurse: I think you may be mistaking the source of the name "luciferin". It's from the Latin for "light bearing", and only (sort of) coincidental that it also happens to be a name for the devil figure from Christian mythology. – jamesqf Apr 25 '17 at 17:22
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@terdon - Wow, I had no idea how... unusual some of those names could be. – anongoodnurse Apr 25 '17 at 17:27
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@jamesqf - Please don't get me wrong; I love the name 'luciferin', and always have from the beginning. I admire wit (Wilde, Burns, Pope, etc.), and wish I had more of it. But it would surprise me if the researchers who named it were oblivious to the name of the mythological fallen angel. – anongoodnurse Apr 25 '17 at 17:30
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@anongoodnurse: Not oblivious, no, but also not directly referencing it. To name a luminescent protein "light bearer" seems obvious. See also "luciferase", and remember that an old word for the common match was "lucifer". – jamesqf Apr 25 '17 at 17:45
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Because their shape reminded researchers of rolls of Sushi (Ichinose et al, 1990):
These repeats were initially called GP-I structures because they were first identified in $\beta_2$-glycoprotein I. More recently, they have been called short consensus repeats or sushi structures because of their shape.
Jack Aidley
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3I thought it would be cool to add in a quote here from the paper, giving the explanation of the name in the authors' own words. Then I realized the paper you cited is merely a review that claims "More recently, they have been called…sushi". Following the next sentence is a citation to this paper, but that one never uses the word sushi. I'm curious if you know who the first author to use this term might be. – Cody Gray - on strike Apr 25 '17 at 16:08
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2@CodyGray No idea. A lot of these terms enter the lexicon in labs and at conferences before they ever reach the literature. – Jack Aidley Apr 25 '17 at 16:11
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2Rumors of free alcohol offered in research conferences are completely untrue. I swear! – terdon Apr 25 '17 at 16:30
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Special thanks for @JackAidley and also thanks for all the other comments. I surmised that the explanation would refer to the shape of proteins, but I couldn't find any source which would tell me so. I also thought that it might be attached to some kind of background story - my own example with precomplex Bötzinger - its name comes from Bötzinger wine served at the symposium in Heidelberg when discovery of this structure was first presented. You can never be 100% sure when it comes to weird names in science and their origins. Examples are numerous. Once again, thank you very much! – Vii Z. Apr 25 '17 at 20:26
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