Papaioannou V E
Department of Genetics and Development, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA.
Int Rev Cytol. 2001;207:1-70. doi: 10.1016/s0074-7696(01)07002-4.
The T-box gene family was uncovered less than a decade ago but has been recognized as important in controlling many and varied aspects of development in metazoans from hydra to humans. Extensive screening and database searching has revealed several subfamilies of genes with orthologs in species as diverse as Caenorhabditis elegans and humans. The defining feature of the family is a conserved sequence coding for a DNA-binding motif known as the T-box, named after the first-discovered T-box gene, T or Brachyury. Although several T-box proteins have been shown to function as transcriptional regulators, to date only a handful of downstream target genes have been discovered. Similarly, little is known about regulation of the T-box genes themselves. Although not limited to the embryo, expression of T-box genes is characteristically seen in dynamic and highly specific patterns in many tissues and organs during embryogenesis and organogenesis. The essential role of several T-box genes has been demonstrated by the developmental phenotypes of mutant animals.
T-box基因家族在不到十年前才被发现，但已被认为在控制从水螅到人类等后生动物发育的诸多不同方面起着重要作用。广泛的筛选和数据库搜索揭示了几个基因亚家族，其直系同源基因存在于从秀丽隐杆线虫到人类等多种物种中。该家族的决定性特征是一段保守序列，编码一种名为T-box的DNA结合基序，它以第一个被发现的T-box基因T（或称为Brachyury）命名。尽管已证明几种T-box蛋白可作为转录调节因子发挥作用，但迄今为止仅发现了少数下游靶基因。同样，对于T-box基因自身的调控了解甚少。虽然T-box基因的表达并不局限于胚胎，但在胚胎发生和器官发生过程中，其在许多组织和器官中以动态且高度特异的模式表达却是其特征。几种T-box基因的重要作用已通过突变动物的发育表型得到证实。
