Molecular evolution of HoxA13 and the multiple origins of limbless morphologies in amphibians and reptiles.

ABSTRACT: Developmental processes and their results, morphological characters, are inherited through transmission of genes regulating development. While there is ample evidence that cis-regulatory elements tend to be modular, with sequence segments dedicated to different roles, the situation for proteins is less clear, being particularly complex for transcription factors with multiple functions. Some motifs mediating protein-protein interactions may be exclusive to particular developmental roles, but it is also possible that motifs are mostly shared among different processes. Here we focus on HoxA13, a protein essential for limb development. We asked whether the HoxA13 amino acid sequence evolved similarly in three limbless clades: Gymnophiona, Amphisbaenia and Serpentes. We explored variation in ω

SUBMITTER: Singarete ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4612600 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul-Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature