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. 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.
Anan
Keiiti
K
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Yoshida
Nobuaki
N
Kataoka
Yuki
Y
Sato
Mitsuharu
M
Ichise
Hirotake
H
Nasu
Makoto
M
Ueda
Shintaroh
S
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*
D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C084118:Hoxd13 protein, mouse; D010455:Peptides; D014157:Transcription Factors; C019529:polyalanine