Morphological Change Caused by Loss of the Taxon-Specific Polyalanine Tract in Hoxd-13

Sequence comparison of Hoxd-13 among vertebrates revealed the presence of taxon-specific polyalanine tracts in amniotes. To investigate their function at the organismal level, we replaced the wild-type Hoxd-13 gene with one lacking the 15-residue polyalanine tract by using homologous recombination....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular biology and evolution 2007-01, Vol.24 (1), p.281-287
Main Authors: Anan, Keiiti, Yoshida, Nobuaki, Kataoka, Yuki, Sato, Mitsuharu, Ichise, Hirotake, Nasu, Makoto, Ueda, Shintaroh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amino Acid Sequence
Amino acids
Amniota
Animals
Bone and Bones - anatomy & histology
Evolution, Molecular
Extremities - anatomy & histology
Homeodomain Proteins - chemistry
Homeodomain Proteins - genetics
Homeodomain Proteins - metabolism
Mice
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutagenesis
Peptides - metabolism
Recombination, Genetic
Sequence Alignment
Transcription Factors - chemistry
Transcription Factors - genetics
Transcription Factors - metabolism
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Summary:Sequence comparison of Hoxd-13 among vertebrates revealed the presence of taxon-specific polyalanine tracts in amniotes. To investigate their function at the organismal level, we replaced the wild-type Hoxd-13 gene with one lacking the 15-residue polyalanine tract by using homologous recombination. Sesamoid bone formation in knock-in mice was different from that in the wild type; this was observed not only in the homozygotes but also in the heterozygotes. The present study provides the first direct evidence that taxon-specific homopolymeric amino acid repeats are involved in phenotypic diversification at the organismal level.
ISSN:0737-4038
1537-1719
DOI:10.1093/molbev/msl161