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The Homeobox as a Key for Understanding the Principles of the Genetic Control of Development

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HOX Gene Expression

Abstract

The discovery of the homeobox, and the Hox gene clusters have uncovered a general universal principle of the genetic control of development. In all bilaterian animals these Hox clusters determine the body plan along the antero-posterior axis. Despite a bewildering diver-sity of modes of development, ranging from animals with a fixed cell lineage and a predetermined egg architecture to organisms with a highly variable cell lineage whose development is primarily based on cellular interactions, all metazoans share Hox gene clusters, characterized by a high degree of sequence conservation and a colinear gene arrangement in which the Hox genes are arranged on the chromosome in the same order as they are expressed along the antero-posterior axis of the developing embryo. This arrangement can only be understood on the basis of evolution. Hox genes have provided the entry point for a newly emerging field, evolutionary developmental genetics.

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  1. Biozentrum, Department of Cell Biology, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, CH-4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Walter J. Gehring

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© 2007 Landes Bioscience and Springer Science+Business Media

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Gehring, W.J. (2007). The Homeobox as a Key for Understanding the Principles of the Genetic Control of Development. In: HOX Gene Expression. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68990-6_1

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