| Tribble | |
|---|---|
| Star Trek race | |
 Captain Kirk in a pile of tribbles | |
| Created by | David Gerrold |
| In-universe information | |
| Other name(s) | Polygeminus grex, Tribleustes ventricosus |
| Home world | Iota Geminorum IV |
| Affiliation | None |
Tribbles are a fictional alien species in the Star Trek universe. They were conceived by screenwriter David Gerrold and first appeared in 1967, in the fifteenth episode of the second season of Star Trek: The Original Series, titled "The Trouble with Tribbles". They are depicted as a small, furry, gentle, cute and slow-moving, but rapidly reproducing, lovable species. Though they appear infrequently on-screen, they have become a popular feature of the Star Trek universe, featuring in their own eponymous official card game, and even lending their name to a conserved family of proteins that was first identified in the fruit fly as a regulator of cell division.[1][2][3]
- ^ Tribbles entry on Interactive Fly database
- ^ Hegedus Z; Czibula A; Kiss-Toth E (2007). "Tribbles: a family of kinase-like proteins with potent signalling regulatory function". Cellular Signalling. 19 (2): 238–250. doi:10.1016/j.cellsig.2006.06.010. PMID 16963228.
- ^ Seher, T. C.; Leptin, M. (2000-06-01). "Tribbles, a cell-cycle brake that coordinates proliferation and morphogenesis during Drosophila gastrulation". Current Biology. 10 (11): 623–629. Bibcode:2000CBio...10..623S. doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(00)00502-9. ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 10837248. S2CID 18841632.