text: Some basic conventions, such as (1) that animal/human homolog (ortholog) pairs differ in letter case (title case and all caps, respectively) and (2) that the symbol is italicized when referring to the gene but nonitalic when referring to the protein, are often not followed by contributors to medical journals. Many journals have the copyeditors restyle the casing and formatting to the extent feasible, although in complex genetics discussions only subject-matter experts (SMEs) can effortlessly parse them all. One example that illustrates the potential for ambiguity among non-SMEs is that some official gene names have the word "protein" within them, so the phrase "brain protein I3 (BRI3)" (referring to the gene) and "brain protein I3 (BRI3)" (referring to the protein) are both valid. The AMA Manual gives another example: both "the TH gene" and "the TH gene" can validly be parsed as correct ("the gene for tyrosine hydroxylase"), because the first mentions the alias (description) and the latter mentions the symbol. This seems confusing on the surface, although it is easier to understand when explained as follows: in this genes case, as in many others, the alias (description) "happens to use the same letter string" that the symbol uses. (The matching of the letters is of course acronymic in origin and thus the phrase "happens to" implies more coincidence than is actually present; but phrasing it that way helps to make the explanation clearer.) There is no way for a non-SME to know this is the case for any particular letter string without looking up every gene from the manuscript in a database such as NCBI Gene, reviewing its symbol, name, and alias list, and doing some mental cross-referencing and double-checking (plus it helps to have biochemical knowledge). Most medical journals do not (in some cases cannot) pay for that level of fact-checking as part of their copyediting service level; therefore, it remains the authors responsibility. However, as pointed out earlier, many authors make little attempt to follow the letter case or italic guidelines; and regarding protein symbols, they often will not use the official symbol at all. For example, although the guidelines would call p53 protein "TP53" in humans or "Trp53" in mice, most authors call it "p53" in both (and even refuse to call it "TP53" if edits or queries try to), not least because of the biologic principle that many proteins are essentially or exactly the same molecules regardless of mammalian species. Regarding the gene, authors are usually willing to call it by its human-specific symbol and capitalization, TP53, and may even do so without being prompted by a query. But the end result of all these factors is that the published literature often does not follow the nomenclature guidelines completely.