Talk:NKX3-2

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Discussion

First of all, thanks to Boghog2 for this page. I have a couple of questions (I am not a scientist, by the way). Isn't it the convention that the names of genes are printed in italics? If so, wouldn't the name of this gene be NKX3-2? And I have the impression that the human gene is NKX3-2, while its corresponding gene in mice is Nkx3-2. I realize that (if I am correct), this would require a lot of busy-work, and don't take this as a recommendation that somebody else do some work. Rather, take it to be just an inquiry about the notation. And one more thing - the reason that I have particular interest in this gene is that it seems to have relevance to the evolutionary origins of the Definitive mammalian middle ear - I hope that I am not misleading people about that. TomS TDotO (talk) 14:00, 20 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi TomS! First of all, thanks for your addition to the NKX3-2 article. Also thanks for your interest in the the Gene Wiki project and for your questions. Concerning gene names, I wasn't sure myself so I had to check and it looks like you are right:

Hester M. Wain, Elspeth A. Bruford, Ruth C. Lovering, Michael J. Lush, Mathew W. Wright and Sue Povey. "Gene names". Guidelines for Human Gene Nomenclature. Human Genome Organisation. Retrieved 2008-07-20. It is recommended that gene and allele symbols are underlined in manuscript and italicized in print; protein symbols should be represented in standard fonts. Italics need not be used in gene catalogs {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

However if the Gene Wiki project could be regarded as a "gene catalog", then italics is not necessary. So technically you are right, but for the purposes the thousands of Wiki Gene articles that have already been generated, perhaps we could be forgiven not italicizing each and every gene name in these articles ;-) Concerning your background, contributions from all quarters is more than welcome. I am certainly not an expert on all these genes and I didn't know that NKX3-2 is involved in the development of the middle ear. You taught me something (well actually two things)! I would most welcome further edits from you to this or any other article. Cheers. Boghog2 (talk) 15:02, 20 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]