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Hox genes and regional patterning of the vertebrate body plan |
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| Authors: | Moises Mallo Deneen M Wellik Jacqueline Deschamps |
| Institution: | a Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal b Department of Histology and Embryology, School of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal c University of Michigan Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Ann Arbor, MI, USA d University of Michigan Medical Center, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Ann Arbor, MI, USA e Hubrecht Institute, Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research and Utrecht University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands |
| Abstract: | Several decades have passed since the discovery of Hox genes in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Their unique ability to regulate morphologies along the anteroposterior (AP) axis (Lewis, 1978) earned them well-deserved attention as important regulators of embryonic development. Phenotypes due to loss- and gain-of-function mutations in mouse Hox genes have revealed that the spatio-temporally controlled expression of these genes is critical for the correct morphogenesis of embryonic axial structures. Here, we review recent novel insight into the modalities of Hox protein function in imparting specific identity to anatomical regions of the vertebral column, and in controlling the emergence of these tissues concomitantly with providing them with axial identity. The control of these functions must have been intimately linked to the shaping of the body plan during evolution. |
| Keywords: | Function of Hox genes in vertebrates Hox paralogous groups Regional patterning of anatomical regions Molecular genetics of axial patterning by Hox genes Hox function in axial extension |
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