Gotta Go BLAST by Josselin Chambily

1.           I searched for a protein called ''sonic hedgehog'' like the video-game character. At first sight, its name can be surprising but this is actually its real scientifical name! This ''sonic hedgehog'' protein belongs to the hedgehog protein family with 2 other ones. Their names are supposed to come from their ''spiky'' appearances as you may see on the image below (I believe that we can all agree on the fact that these scientists had a lot of imagination to name these proteins). Even if we can think that scientist would give this kind of name to an insignificant protein that nobody cares about, this sonic hedgehog protein is actually really important for several animals; including mice, flies, wolves and even humans; as it plays a key role in the growth of members, and also in the development of the thalamus or the spinal cord. 

2.          Among all the different animals possessing this protein, I decided to pick the human version  (Homo Sapiens) which is homologous to the drosophila's one. According to the NCBI website, its accession number is BAA24866.1.

3. The beginning of the amino sequence of sonic hedgehog is:

         1  mgemlllarc lllvlvssll vcsglacgpg rgfgkrrhpk kltplaykqf ipnvaektlg
       61  asgryegkis rnserfkelt pnynpdiifk deentgadrl mtqrckdkln alaisvmnqw
      121 pgvklrvteg wdedghhsee slhyegravd ittsdrdrsk ygmlarlave agfdwvyyes
      181 kahihcsvka ensvaaksgg cfpgsatvhl eqggtklvkd lspgdrvlaa ddqgrllysd
      241 fltfldrddg akkvfyviet reprerlllt aahllfvaph ndsatgepea ssgsgppsgg
      301 algpralfas rvrpgqrvyv vaerdgdrrl lpaavhsvtl seeaagayap ltaqgtilin
      361 rvlascyavi eehswahraf apfrlahall aalapartdr ggdsgggdrg ggggrvalta
      421 pgaadapgag atagihwysq llyqigtwll dsealhplgm avkss

             The first 10 amino-acids are: Methionine, Alanine, Arginine, Leucine, Serine, A  lanine, Valine, Isoleucine, Glutamine, Threonine, Leucine.                                                 

4.           Citation:

              Authors: Tate,G., Kishimoto,K. and Mitsuya,T.


              Title: Expression of Sonic hedgehog and its receptor Patched/Smoothened in
                       human cancer cell lines and embryonic organs.


              Journal: J. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Biophys. 4, 27-34 (2000)

5.            The nucleotide sequence coding for this protein is:

           1 atggctctcc tgaccaatct actgcccctg tgctgcttgg cacttctggc gctgccagcc
        61  cagagctgcg ggccgggccg ggggccggtt ggccggcgcc gctatgcgcg caagcagctc
      121 gtgccgctac tctacaagca atttgtgccc ggcgtgccag agcggaccct gggcgccagt
      181 gggccagcgg aggggagggt ggcaaggggc tccgagcgct tccgggacct cgtgcccaac
      241 tacaaccccg acatcatctt caaggatgag gagaacagtg gagccgaccg cctgatgacc
      301 gaggtaagga gggcctctcc ctacctgcgc cggggcactg ccagctcctc cgttttccta