Gene fusions have been discussed in the scientific literature since they were first detected in cancer cells in the early 1980s. There is currently no standardized way to denote the genes involved in fusions, but in the majority of publications the gene symbols in question are listed either separated by a hyphen (-) or by a forward slash (/). Both types of designation suffer from important shortcomings. HGNC has worked with the scientific community to determine a new, instantly recognizable and unique separator—a double colon (::)—to be used in the description of fusion genes, and advocates its usage in all databases and articles describing gene fusions.

自从 1980 年代初在癌细胞中首次检测到基因融合以来，科学文献中一直在讨论它们。目前还没有标准化的方式来表示参与融合的基因，但在大多数出版物中，所讨论的基因符号要么用连字符 (-) 分隔，要么用正斜杠 (/) 分隔。两种类型的名称都存在重大缺陷。HGNC 与科学界合作确定了一种新的、可立即识别且独特的分隔符——双冒号 (::)——用于描述融合基因，并提倡在所有描述基因融合的数据库和文章中使用它。