One of the most surprising biological discoveries of the past two decades is that most
animals, no matter how different in appearance, share several families of genes that …

With their power to shape animal morphology, few genes have captured the imagination of
biologists as the evolutionarily conserved members of the Hox clusters have done. Recent …

Most animals exhibit distinctive and diverse morphological features on their anterior‐
posterior body axis. However, underneath the variation in design and developmental …

The ancestral role of the Hox gene family is specifying morphogenetic differences along the
main body axis. In vertebrates, HoxD genes were also co-opted along with the emergence of …

Despite decades of research, morphogenesis along the various body axes remains one of
the major mysteries in developmental biology. A milestone in the field was the realisation …

An understanding of the origin of different body plans requires knowledge of how the genes
and genetic pathways that control embryonic development have evolved. The Hox genes …

Hox proteins are well known for executing highly specific functions in vivo, but our
understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying gene regulation by these …

ABSTRACT A common form of evolutionary variation between vertebrate taxa is the different
numbers of segments that contribute to various regions of the anterior-posterior axis; cervical …

Hox genes play key roles in axial patterning and regulating the regional identity of cells and
tissues in a wide variety of animals from invertebrates to vertebrates. Nested domains of Hox …

▪ Abstract The Hox homeobox gene family plays a pivotal role in regulating patterning and
axial morphogenesis in vertebrates. Molecular characterization of the four Hox clusters has …