Lampreys, the Jawless Vertebrates, Contain Only Two Parahox Gene Clusters
Lampreys, the jawless vertebrates, contain only two ParaHox gene clusters Huixian Zhanga,b,1, Vydianathan Ravia,1, Boon-Hui Taya, Sumanty Toharia, Nisha E. Pillaia, Aravind Prasada, Qiang Linb, Sydney Brennera,2, and Byrappa Venkatesha,c,2 aInstitute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Biopolis, Singapore 138673, Singapore; bChinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bioresources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China; and cDepartment of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119228, Singapore Contributed by Sydney Brenner, July 6, 2017 (sent for review March 20, 2017; reviewed by José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta and Nipam H. Patel) ParaHox genes (Gsx, Pdx,andCdx) are an ancient family of develop- elephant shark, Callorhinchus milii; as well as the lobe-finned fish, mental genes closely related to the Hox genes. They play critical roles in coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), and spotted gar (Lepisosteus the patterning of brain and gut. The basal chordate, amphioxus, con- oculatus), a basal ray-finned fish (Actinopterygian), possess an ad- tains a single ParaHox cluster comprising one member of each family, ditional Pdx gene (called Pdx2)linkedtoGsx2 (Fig. 1) (8–10). In- whereas nonteleost jawed vertebrates contain four ParaHox genomic terestingly, teleosts that have experienced an additional round of loci with six or seven ParaHox genes. Teleosts, which have experienced genome duplication (3R) possess only six ParaHox genes distrib- an additional whole-genome duplication, contain six ParaHox genomic uted in six genomic loci (11, 12) (Fig. 1). As a consequence of the loci with six ParaHox genes.
[Show full text]