Peterson R L, Jacobs D F, Awgulewitsch A
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425-2211.
Mech Dev. 1992 May;37(3):151-66. doi: 10.1016/0925-4773(92)90077-w.
Most members of the murine Hox gene system can be grouped into two subclasses based on their structural similarity to either one of the Drosophila homeotic genes Antennapedia (Antp) or Abdominal B (AbdB). All the AbdB-like genes reported thus far are located in the 5' region of their respective cluster. We describe here the isolation, structural characterization and spatio-temporal expression pattern of a new AbdB-like homeobox gene designated Hox-3.6 that is located in the 5' region of the Hox-3 cluster. Hox-3.6 has an extreme posterior expression domain in embryos of 12.5 days of gestation, a feature that has thus far only been observed for the 5' most genes of the Hox-4 cluster. Like the other members of the AbdB subfamily, Hox-3.6 exhibits spatially restricted expression in the hindlimb bud, but the expression domain is antero-proximal in contrast to the postero-distal domain reported for its cognate gene Hox-4.5. Structural analysis of the 5' region revealed the presence of a 35 bp sequence which shares homology and relative 5' position with an upstream sequence present in its two nearest downstream neighbors, Hox-3.2 and -3.1.
小鼠Hox基因系统的大多数成员可根据其与果蝇同源异型基因触角足基因（Antp）或腹部B基因（AbdB）之一的结构相似性分为两个亚类。迄今为止报道的所有AbdB样基因都位于其各自基因簇的5'区域。我们在此描述一个新的AbdB样同源框基因Hox-3.6的分离、结构特征及时空表达模式，该基因位于Hox-3基因簇的5'区域。Hox-3.6在妊娠12.5天的胚胎中有一个极端后端的表达结构域，这一特征迄今为止仅在Hox-4基因簇最5'端的基因中观察到。与AbdB亚家族的其他成员一样，Hox-3.6在后肢芽中表现出空间受限的表达，但其表达结构域是近端前部，与其同源基因Hox-4.5报道的远端后部结构域相反。对5'区域的结构分析揭示了一个35bp序列的存在，该序列与其两个最邻近的下游邻居Hox-3.2和-3.1中存在的上游序列具有同源性和相对5'位置。
