For a gene gene called XXX12 virologists like myself name the proteien pXXX12.

Best,

Guenther

Genes: lowercase & italic.

Proteins: UPPERCASE & NORMAL.

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To distinguish between genes and proteins from different organisms, e.g., Homo sapiens vs. Mus musculus, add the intial letters of the species, e.g.:

genes Hs-xxx12 vs. Mm-xxx12; proteins Hs-XXX12 vs Mm-XXX12.

Thank you Martin and Guenther for your contributions.

Guenther, I think I would not be able to use virus' nomenclature for discussing animal genes, but that was a good reference, thank you.

Martin, is this nomenclature widely used? I have seen it being used only in textbooks, but not in current scientific articles.

For instance, most gene expression studies I read have used the nomenclature cited in my original post. Therefore, I'm a bit concerned about following the tips you guys gave me. It would be better if I had also some references to compare with.

Thanks again.

Consult the publishers/journals. They might have their own guidelines regarding the format of gene and protein names, and if not, they can give you a recommendation, and if not, it is up to you then to decide how to format the names as long as you define them on the first use and as long as the reader can easily remember the definitions of what is a gene, what a protein, what is a human gene/protein, what a bacterial gene/protein, etc.