title: Sea urchin Hox genes: insights into the ancestral Hox cluster.
abstract: We describe the Hox cluster in the radially symmetric sea urchin and compare our findings to what is known from clusters in bilaterally symmetric animals. Several Hox genes from the direct-developing sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma are described. CHEF gel analysis shows that the Hox genes are clustered on a < or = 300 kilobase (kb) fragment of DNA, and only a single cluster is present, as in lower chordates and other nonvertebrate metazoans. Phylogenetic analyses of sea urchin, amphioxus, Drosophila, and selected vertebrate Hox genes confirm that the H. erythrogramma genes, and others previously cloned from other sea urchins, belong to anterior, central, and posterior groups. Despite their radial body plan and lack of cephalization, echinoderms retain at least one of the anterior group Hox genes, an orthologue of Hox3. The structure of the echinoderm Hox cluster suggests that the ancestral deuterostome had a Hox cluster more similar to the current chordate cluster than was expected Sea urchins have at least three Abd-B type genes, suggesting that Abd-B expansion began before the radiation of deuterostomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA. epopodi@bio.indiana.edu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Popodi
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Kissinger
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Raff
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002816:Chordata, Nonvertebrate / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D017344:Genes, Insect; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D012617:Sea Urchins / Q000235:genetics*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins