The naming of genes.

Sue Broom looks at the process of naming new genes. Nick Brown from the University of Cambridge runs through some of the officially recognised gene names currently in use. Genes have been being named since 1910 when Thomas Hunt Morgan named the gene which caused a fly to have a white eye, 'white.' Names since have included Kakapo, Cleopatra, Pavarotti, Chardonay, Hedgehog and Cheap Date among many hundreds of thousands. Various people who have named genes discuss their choices and provide historical anectodes about gene naming.