title: Morphological change caused by loss of the taxon-specific polyalanine tract in Hoxd-13.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiiti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Anan
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kataoka
authors.forename: Mitsuharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Hirotake
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ichise
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nasu
authors.forename: Shintaroh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ueda
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005121:Extremities / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C084118:Hoxd13 protein, mouse; D010455:Peptides; D014157:Transcription Factors; C019529:polyalanine