List of unusual biological names

The trouble with unusual names has not been lost on scientists when needing to explain genetic diseases to lay-people.^[1] This has particularly been noted in patients with a defect in the sonic hedgehog gene pathway and the disease formerly named CATCH22 for "cardiac anomaly, T-cell deficit, clefting and hypocalcaemia for chromosome 22q11.2 microdeletions". This name was abandoned due to the no-win connotations.^[2]

In 1993 Alfonso Martinez Arias, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, was ordered to change the name of the gene he had discovered, VELCRO, because of copyright issues with Velcro.^[3] The gene was re-named to puckered.^[4] In 2005, Pokémon threatened to sue the discoverer of POKEMON because the name was attracting attention when its link to the development of cancer was published.^[3]

Genes and proteins[]

In the early discovery days of genomics, genes were often given creative names upon discovery. Although a nomenclature committee has now been formed, several of these names remain.^[5]

Molecules[]

• Moronic acid, a natural triterpene
• Traumatic acid, a monounsaturated dicarboxylic acid naturally occurring in plants

Species[]

• Aerodactylus, a disputed pterosaur genus named for the Pokémon Aerodactyl.
• Choeras zygon, a species of parasitoid wasp named after the Zygons from Doctor Who.^[13]
• Midichloria, a genus of Gram-negative, non spore-forming bacteria, is derived from the midi-chlorians, a symbiotic, microscopic life form described in the fictional Star Wars universe.^[14]
• Spongiforma squarepantsii, a fungus species from Malaysia named after the Nickelodeon character SpongeBob SquarePants from the show of the same name.
• Thanos simonattoi, a species of theropod named after the supervillain Thanos from Marvel Comics.^[15]
• Yoda purpurata, a species of acorn worm from the North Atlantic ocean, was named after the fictional character Yoda from the Star Wars franchise.^[16][17] It is the only known hermaphroditic member within the phylum.^[18]
• Anelosimus dude and Anelosimus biglebowski are closely related species of spiders found only in the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania. The former is named after Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, the protagonist of the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, while the latter is named after the film itself. ^[19]

Techniques[]

• Chromatin Interaction Analysis by Paired-End Tag Sequencing (ChIA-PET) is a technique to determine chromatin interactions which shares a name with Chia Pets.

See also[]

• List of chemical compounds with unusual names

References[]