HoxA Genes and the Fin-to-Limb Transition in Vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: HoxA genes encode for important DNA-binding transcription factors that act during limb development, regulating primarily gene expression and, consequently, morphogenesis and skeletal differentiation. Within these genes, HoxA11 and HoxA13 were proposed to have played an essential role in the enigmatic evolutionary transition from fish fins to tetrapod limbs. Indeed, comparative gene expression analyses led to the suggestion that changes in their regulation might have been essential for the diversification of vertebrates' appendages. In this review, we highlight three potential modifications in the regulation and function of these genes that may have boosted appendage evolution: (1) the expansion of polyalanine repeats in the HoxA11 and HoxA13 proteins; (2) the origin of +a novel long-non-co

SUBMITTER: Leite-Castro J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5831813 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature