[Multiple role of hedgehog genes in vertebrates: data from analysis of mutations].

Hedgehog (hh) gene has been discovered in Drosophila as result of the now famous screen for embryonic mutants in Drosophila performed by Dr. Christianne Nusslein-Volhard and her Ph.D. student Eric Wieschaus in 1980 in Tubingen, Germany (Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus, 1980). Due to recognition of the impact of these mutants onto contemporary developmental biology these scientists obtained a Nobel Prize in 1995. By that time it become obvious that the history of hh studies represents one of the most interesting chapters of developmental biology.