Showell Chris, Christine Kathleen S, Mandel Elizabeth M, Conlon Frank L
Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center and Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3280, USA.
Dev Dyn. 2006 Jun;235(6):1623-30. doi: 10.1002/dvdy.20714.
T-box genes have diverse functions during embryogenesis and are implicated in several human congenital disorders. Here, we report the identification, sequence analysis, and developmental expression patterns of four members of the T-box gene family in the diploid frog Xenopus tropicalis. These four genes-Tbx1, Tbx2, Tbx5, and Tbx20-have been shown to influence cardiac development in a variety of organisms, in addition to their individual roles in regulating other aspects of embryonic development. Our results highlight the high degree of evolutionary conservation between orthologs of these genes in X. tropicalis and other vertebrates, both at the molecular level and in their developmental expression patterns, and also identify novel features of their expression. Thus, X. tropicalis represents a potentially valuable vertebrate model in which to further investigate the functions of these genes through genetic approaches.
T-box基因在胚胎发育过程中具有多种功能，并与多种人类先天性疾病有关。在此，我们报告了二倍体青蛙热带爪蟾中T-box基因家族四个成员的鉴定、序列分析及发育表达模式。除了在调节胚胎发育的其他方面发挥各自作用外，这四个基因——Tbx1、Tbx2、Tbx5和Tbx20——已被证明在多种生物体中影响心脏发育。我们的结果突出了热带爪蟾与其他脊椎动物中这些基因直系同源物在分子水平及其发育表达模式上的高度进化保守性，同时也鉴定出了它们表达的新特征。因此，热带爪蟾是一个潜在的有价值的脊椎动物模型，可通过遗传学方法进一步研究这些基因的功能。
