| Affiliation: | (1) Comparative Genomics Centre, Molecular Sciences Building 21, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia;(2) Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development and Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, P.O. Box 475, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia |
| Abstract: | A number of examples of independently duplicated regulatory genes have been identified in cnidarians, but the extent of this phenomenon and organization of these duplicated genes are unknown. Here we describe the identification of three pairs of independently duplicated homeobox genes in the anthozoan cnidarian, Acropora millepora. In each case, the pairs of paralogous genes are tightly linked, but the extent of sequence divergence implies that these do not reflect recent duplication events. The phenomenon is likely to be more general, as the examples reported here represent most of the limited number of Acropora homeobox genes for which genomic data are yet available.N. Hislop and D. de Jong contributed equally to this workEdited by M. Akam |
