Divergent role of the Hox gene Antennapedia in spiders is responsible for the convergent evolution of abdominal limb repression.

ABSTRACT: Evolution often results in morphologically similar solutions in different organisms, a phenomenon known as convergence. However, there is little knowledge of the processes that lead to convergence at the genetic level. The genes of the Hox cluster control morphology in animals. They may also be central to the convergence of morphological traits, but whether morphological similarities also require similar changes in Hox gene function is disputed. In arthropods, body subdivision into a region with locomotory appendages ("thorax") and a region with reduced appendages ("abdomen") has evolved convergently in several groups, e.g., spiders and insects. In insects, legs develop in the expression domain of the Hox gene Antennapedia (Antp), whereas the Hox genes Ultrabithorax (Ubx) and abdominal-A m

SUBMITTER: Khadjeh S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3323954 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature