Evolutionary origin and genomic organisation of runt-domain containing genes in arthropods.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Gene clusters, such as the Hox gene cluster, are known to have critical roles in development. In eukaryotes gene clusters arise primarily by tandem gene duplication and divergence. Genes within a cluster are often co-regulated, providing selective pressure to maintain the genome organisation, and this co-regulation can result in temporal or spatial co-linearity of gene expression. It has been previously noted that in Drosophila melanogaster, three of the four runt-domain (RD) containing genes are found in a relatively tight cluster on chromosome 1, raising the possibility of a putative functional RD gene cluster in D. melanogaster.

Results

To investigate the possibility of such a gene cluster, orthologues of the Drosophila melanogaster RD genes were identified in

SUBMITTER: Duncan EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2631020 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature