Subject: alan-shepard short symbol?
Dear Sonia and Kate,
I'm wondering whether the alan-shepard gene has come by a short symbol
yet.  When we last discussed this you suggested alan but alan is in use
for 'alae angustae' (FBgn0020882) so that wouldn't work.  However that
was now a long time ago and you may since have settled on a short
symbol that has not been used for another gene.  If not, how about
ashep, or alash?  We are working towards our next update and it would
be good to fix this if possible.
Best regards,
Rachel.
Subject: Re: alan-shepard short symbol?
Hi Rachel.
we're sad to learn that alan is already taken, but given that this is 
the case we'd like to use "shep" as the short symbol for the gene. 
Actually there is a second astronaut nicknamed shep so we can view 
this change as allowing us to honor two space pioneers rather than 
just one.
Best,
Kate
-- 
Kathleen M. Beckingham
Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology,
Dept. Biochemistry and Cell Biology, MS-140,
Rice University,
PO BOX 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892
USA