Coral Comparative Genomics Reveal Expanded Hox Cluster in the Cnidarian—Bilaterian Ancestor
The key developmental role of the Hox cluster of genes was established prior to the last common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes and the subsequent evolution of this cluster has played a major role in the morphological diversity exhibited in extant bilaterians. Despite 20 years of research...
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Published in | Integrative and comparative biology Vol. 52; no. 6; pp. 835 - 841 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Oxford University Press
01.12.2012
Oxford Publishing Limited (England) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The key developmental role of the Hox cluster of genes was established prior to the last common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes and the subsequent evolution of this cluster has played a major role in the morphological diversity exhibited in extant bilaterians. Despite 20 years of research into cnidarian Hox genes, the nature of the cnidarian—bilaterian ancestral Hox cluster remains unclear. In an attempt to further elucidate this critical phylogenetic node, we have characterized the Hox cluster of the recently sequenced Acropora digitifera genome. The A. digitifera genome contains two anterior Hox genes (PG1 and PG2) linked to an Eve homeobox gene and an AnthoxlA gene, which is thought to be either a posterior or posterior/central Hox gene. These data show that the Hox cluster of the cnidarian—bilaterian ancestor was more extensive than previously thought. The results are congruent with the existence of an ancient set of constraints on the Hox cluster and reinforce the importance of incorporating a wide range of animal species to reconstruct critical ancestral nodes. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 The first two authors contributed equally to this work. From the symposium “Evo-Devo Rides the Genomics Express” presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 3–7, 2012 at Charleston, South Carolina. |
ISSN: | 1540-7063 1557-7023 |
DOI: | 10.1093/icb/ics098 |