In my experience, scientists as a group are generally pretty funny people. I realize that’s probably counterintuitive for some folks, but its a hill I’m willing to die on. Whether we are talking about an Ig Nobel or someone making their cat a coauthor, scientists niche interests and quick wit can really kill with the right crowd.

By far the group that takes this to another level is geneticists, particularly fly geneticists. I have yet to determined if fruit flies are just great joke writers, or if this developed as some sort of coping mechanism to deal with having to work in a fly facility. What I do know is that they love a funny or clever gene name.

Part of the reason I suspect this is true, is that discoverers get pretty free reign when it comes to naming newly discovered genes, particularly outside of humans. After all, if you put in all that work for relatively little money, the least you should be able to do is name the damn thing you discovered.

Secondarily, there are so many genes available to name, that gives you some leeway to get fun with it. Additionally, at least when it comes to the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), naming conventions of describing changes in fly anatomy make it necessary to start thinking outside the box. After all there are only so many ways to say “this wing doesn’t look the others I’ve seen.”

Given it’s a Friday and we’re about to move into a holiday weekend in the US, I figured I’d take a stab ranking the top 10 funniest gene (and allele) names in existence:

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#10 Tinman (tin)

Fruit flies without this gene don’t develop a heart. So they named it after the Wizard of Oz character who literally sings, “If I only had a heart.” Which is somehow both tragic and a bad Dad joke.

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#9 Swiss Cheese (sws)

When mutated, fly brains develop holes… so, naturally, scientists said: “You know what that looks like? A block of Emmental.”

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#8 Dreadlocks (dock)

A gene that causes neurons in fly eyes to look like dreadlocks. I can only imagine the lab notebook:
“Fly observed to have sick dreads. Follow up study needed.”

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#7 Kenny (key)

As in “Oh my god, they killed Kenny!” When it mutates, the flies die. Every. Single. Time. Given the latest episodes of South Park and the slash and burn approach to grant funding in the US; I fear the US stands to fall even further behind coming up with excellent gene names… also cancer research seems important…

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#6 Grim & Reaper (rpr)

Yes, there are two genes, and together, they regulate cell death. Then with all the gravitas of a middle school metal band, researchers decided to name them Grim and Reaper. Still I give them points for making it easy to remember function, so its hard for me to rank this pair lower.

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#5 “I’m Not Dead Yet” (Indy)

Mutated flies live longer than usual. Which is why researchers quoted Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “I’m not dead yet!” This is, to my knowledge is the first time science has ever been improved by men yelling in falsetto, but my lit search at this point has been limited.

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#4 Cheap Date (allele of amnesiac)

Mutant flies that get drunk ridiculously quickly. Which means, yes, a graduate student once had the honor of pipetting ethanol into a fly vial and thinking: “These guys would be terrible at college.”

Cheapdate is actually an allele (version of gene) of a fantastically named gene called amnesiac (amn). As you may have already guessed some mutations in amnesiac cause memory issues, which I think could set us up for an amazing fruit fly based reboot of Memento.

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#3 Sonic Hedgehog (SHH)

This developmental gene controls body patterning. Which is important. Which is serious. Which is why it was named after a video game character who eats rings and yells about chili dogs. Secondarily, the official acronym looks like your just trying to tell someone to keep it down (SHH).

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#2 Ken & Barbie (ken)

A mutation that leaves flies without external genitalia. And instead of… oh, I don’t know… a professional term, they went with: Ken & Barbie. Because anatomically, those dolls are smooth as a fruit fly pick up line.

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#1 Callipyge (CLPG)

This one’s from sheep. Mutation causes, and I believe this is the technical term: thicc butts. The name literally comes from Greek for “beautiful buttocks.” Meaning someone got a PhD trying to answer the question, “I wonder what gene makes this sheep’s butt look so good.” I’m looking at you Cockett et al.

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Sadly, some of these names are falling out of fashion. Discoveries in model organisms like flies have a funny way of being later discovered in people which means the name usually transfers. The problem is, that fun name starts to be less fun when its responsible for a terrible disease. Several years ago the Human Genome Organization Gene Nomenclature Committee felt it was appropriate to consider revising some established names that may be “inappropriate, demeaning and pejorative.”

Honestly, they’re not wrong to consider the implications. No one wants to be the clinician having to explain to parent’s that their child suffers from a defect in the Pokemon gene. Also choosing copyrighted names its a great way to get sued.

So what do you think? Is my gene ranking right? Did I miss one that should have been included? Let me know your verdict in the comments or vote for your favorite choice here:

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Looking for something else light with a scientific bent. Check out: No one ever expects an immaculate conception. Before I get more hate mail on this article: 1) yes I know the immaculate conception and the virgin birth are not the same thing. 2) I will not be changing the title. Telling people they’re wrong on the internet is a time honored, and I don’t want to take that away from anyone.