Hedgehog acyltransferase (HHAT), also called skinny hedgehog homology in humans, is a human
gene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
.
The HHAT gene encodes an
enzyme
An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...
that catalyzes
N-terminal
The N-terminus (also known as the amino-terminus, NH2-terminus, N-terminal end or amine-terminus) is the start of a protein or polypeptide, referring to the free amine group (-NH2) located at the end of a polypeptide. Within a peptide, the amin ...
palmitoylation
In molecular biology, palmitoylation is the covalent attachment of fatty acids, such as palmitic acid, to cysteine (''S''-palmitoylation) and less frequently to serine and threonine (''O''-palmitoylation) residues of proteins, which are typic ...
of
sonic hedgehog
Sonic hedgehog protein (SHH) is a major signaling molecule of embryonic development in humans and animals, encoded by the ''SHH'' gene.
This signaling molecule is key in regulating embryonic morphogenesis in all animals. SHH controls organoge ...
. Mutations in HHAT produce a
phenotype
In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (physical form and structure), its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological propert ...
that is similar to loss of hedgehog function. Finally the HHAT protein shares a short but significant sequence similarity to
membrane-bound O-acyltransferases.
References
External links
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