Dispersal of NK homeobox gene clusters in amphioxus and humans.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Luke GN
PROVIDER: S-EPMC154338 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Dispersal of NK homeobox gene clusters in amphioxus and humans.
Luke Graham N GN Castro L Filipe C LF McLay Kirsten K Bird Christine C Coulson Alan A Holland Peter W H PW
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20030418 9
The Drosophila melanogaster genome has six physically clustered NK-related homeobox genes in just 180 kb. Here we show that the NK homeobox gene cluster was an ancient feature of bilaterian animal genomes, but has been secondarily split in chordate ancestry. The NK homeobox gene clusters of amphioxus and vertebrates are each split and dispersed at two equivalent intergenic positions. From the ancestral NK gene cluster, only the Tlx-Lbx and NK3-NK4 linkages have been retained in chordates. This e ...[more]
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