Holland P W
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK.
Development. 1988;103 Suppl:17-24.
Several Drosophila genes important in the control of embryonic development contain a characteristic sequence of DNA, known as the homeobox. Homeobox sequences are also present in a family of vertebrate genes, which may therefore have regulatory roles during vertebrate embryogenesis. In this article, data concerning the spatial patterns of vertebrate homeobox gene expression are discussed in relation to recent descriptive and experimental analyses of head development. It is concluded that the patterns of gene expression are consistent with homeobox genes having roles in anteroposterior positional specification within the developing brain and possibly the neural crest. The data are not clearly consistent with these genes having direct roles in controlling the patterns of cranial segmentation, although further studies may reveal whether vertebrate segments are units of developmental specification.
几个在胚胎发育控制中起重要作用的果蝇基因含有一段特征性的DNA序列，即同源异型框。同源异型框序列也存在于一个脊椎动物基因家族中，因此它们在脊椎动物胚胎发生过程中可能具有调控作用。在本文中，关于脊椎动物同源异型框基因表达的空间模式的数据，是结合最近对头发育的描述性和实验性分析来讨论的。得出的结论是，基因表达模式与同源异型框基因在发育中的大脑以及可能在神经嵴内的前后位置指定中发挥作用相一致。尽管进一步的研究可能会揭示脊椎动物的节段是否是发育指定的单位，但这些数据并不明确支持这些基因在控制颅骨节段模式方面具有直接作用。
