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Developmental Genetics and the Diversity of Animal Form: Hox Genes in Arthropods

  • Chapter
The Biology of Biodiversity

Abstract

The wonderful diversity of animal forms is built upon a largely conserved set of genes and developmental mechanisms. The Hox genes provide one of the best studied examples of how such a conserved mechanism underlies a diversity of forms.

The Hox genes encode proteins that serve as molecular labels for the position of cells along the major body axis. The differential expression of these genes causes cells that would otherwise be equivalent to adopt different developmental fates in different regions of the body. This leads to the differentiation of segments in arthropods, and of regions along the axial skeleton of vertebrates. An analogous role is probably conserved in most other triploblastic bilaterian phyla. The family of Hox genes diversified at an early stage in the radiation of the metazoa. The set of Hox genes present in each phylum provides phylogenetic characters that are useful for establishing the relationships between phyla. Characteristics of the 5′ (Abd-B related) genes support the grouping of the metazoa into the same major lineages as the recent rRNA-based phylogeny proposed by Aguinaldo and colleagues.

The patterns of expression of the Hox genes provide markers to relate the body plans of distantly related animals. A good example is the comparison of head segmentation in chelicerate and mandibulate arthropods. Patterns of Hox gene expression refute a model of segment loss in chelicerates, and suggest that these very different arthropods retain a common set of uniquely defined head segments de-rived from their last common ancestor. No one gene can be taken to define “homology”, but in cases such as this where comparisons of several genes provide a consistent pattern, they may provide powerful discrimination between alternative hypotheses.

Comparisons of Hox gene expression in the arthropod trunk suggest a more flexible relationship between the processes of segment formation and Hox gene regulation. Changes in this relationship have led to changes in the pattern of tagmosis, which underlie the functional specialisation and evolutionary radiation of the arthropods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University Museum of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, England

    Michael Akam

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Tokyo, 113-8654, Japan

    Masahiro Kato

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Tokyo

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Akam, M. (2000). Developmental Genetics and the Diversity of Animal Form: Hox Genes in Arthropods. In: Kato, M. (eds) The Biology of Biodiversity. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-65930-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-65930-3_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo

  • Print ISBN: 978-4-431-65932-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-4-431-65930-3

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