Sonic the Hedgehog protagonist Sonic the Hedgehog, a blue hedgehog able to run at supersonic speeds, and recurring villain Dr. Eggman, an evil scientist whose ambition is to conquer the world. Among Sonic's many allies, the most well-known include: Miles "Tails" Prower, a twin-tailed, highly intelligent yellow fox who is Sonic's sidekick and best friend; Amy Rose, a pink hedgehog who is Sonic's self-proclaimed girlfriend and a hero in her own right; Knuckles the Echidna, a coolheaded red echidna who is the guardian of the Master Emerald; Shadow the Hedgehog, an anti-heroic doppelgänger of Sonic with a dark past; and Metal Sonic, a
Sonic hedgehog but low in the developing bronchi. Mice who are deficient in SHH can develop tracheoesophageal fistula (abnormal connection of the esophagus and trachea). Additionally, it a double (SHH-/- ) knockout mouse model exhibited poor lung development. The lungs of the SHH double knockout failed to undergo lobation and branching (the abnormal lungs only developed one branch compared to an extensively branched phenotype of the wildtype). Sonic hedgehog may play a role in mammalian hair cell regeneration. By modulating retinoblastoma protein activity in rat cochlea, sonic hedgehog allows mature hair cells that normally cannot return to a proliferative state to divide