Patched

Patched (Ptc) is a conserved 12-pass transmembrane protein receptor that plays an obligate negative regulatory role in the Hedgehog signaling pathway in insects and vertebrates. The original mutations in the ptc gene were discovered in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster by 1995 Nobel Laureates Eric F. Wieschaus and Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and colleagues, and the gene was independently cloned in 1989 by Joan Hooper in the laboratory of Matthew P. Scott, and by Philip Ingham and colleagues. Patched is an embryo-lethal segment polarity gene that is important for proper segmentation in the fly embryo. Patched functions as the receptor for the Hedgehog protein and controls its spatial distribution, in part via endocytosis of bound Hedgehog protein, which is then targeted for lysosomal degradation.