title: Comparative analysis of a 229-kb medaka genomic region, containing the zic1 and zic4 genes, with Fugu, human, and mouse.
abstract: Medaka is one of the prominent model animals, which also include other fishes such as Fugu and zebrafish. Its genome is relatively compact but has not been well characterized. Here we have sequenced a 229-kb region of medaka, containing the Double anal fin (Da) locus, and compared its structure to those in Fugu, human, and mouse. This region, representing a gene-poor region, contains no major rearrangements and can be readily compared among different species. Comparison of G+C contents and repeats suggested that medaka and Fugu are highly related as expected and that medaka is more similar to mammals than Fugu is. Sequence comparisons of developmental genes zic1 and zic4, identified within this region, revealed that zic1, but not zic4, is highly conserved among vertebrates. The 5' coding region of zic4 is, however, extremely homologous among fishes with little synonymous substitutions, implying its distinct function in fish.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Information, Division of Molecular Life Science, School of Medicine, Tokai University, Bohseidai, Isehara, Kanagawa 259-1193, Japan. masato@is.icc.u-tokai.ac.jp
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohtsuka
authors.forename: Natsuko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Kenjiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ozato
authors.forename: Hidetoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inoko
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kimura
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001482:Base Composition / Q000235:genetics; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D020451:Contig Mapping; D021901:DNA, Intergenic / Q000235:genetics; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009990:Oryzias / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D023741:Takifugu / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D014157:Transcription Factors