Maternal Transcripts of Hox Genes Are Found in Oocytes of Platynereis dumerilii (Annelida, Nereididae).

ABSTRACT: Hox genes are some of the best studied developmental control genes. In the overwhelming majority of bilateral animals, these genes are sequentially activated along the main body axis during the establishment of the ground plane, i.e., at the moment of gastrulation. Their activation is necessary for the correct differentiation of cell lines, but at the same time it reduces the level of stemness. That is why the chromatin of Hox loci in the pre-gastrulating embryo is in a bivalent state. It carries both repressive and permissive epigenetic markers at H3 histone residues, leading to transcriptional repression. There is a paradox that maternal RNAs, and in some cases the proteins of the Hox genes, are present in oocytes and preimplantation embryos in mammals. Their functions should be differen

SUBMITTER: Maslakov GP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8482071 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature