title: Conservation of Gbx genes from EHG homeobox in bivalve molluscs.
abstract: Homeobox-containing genes encode a set of transcription factors that have been shown to control spatial patterning mechanisms in bilaterian organism development. The homeobox gene Gbx, included in the EHGbox cluster, is implicated in the development of the nervous system. In this study, we surveyed five different families of Bivalvia for the presence of Gbx genes by means of PCR with degenerate primers. We were able to recover seven Gbx gene fragments from five bivalve species: Solen marginatus, Mimachlamys varia, Venerupis pullastra, Ostrea edulis and Mytilus galloprovincialis (the derived amino acid sequence were designated Sma-Gbx, Cva-Gbx, Vpu-Gbx, Oed-Gbx and Mga-Gbx, respectively). These genes are orthologous to various Gbx genes present in bilaterian genomes. The Gbx genes in four Bivalvia families, namely Solenidae, Veneridae, Ostreidae and Mytilidae, are newly reported here and we also showed additional information of the Gbx genes of Pectinidae. The phylogenetic analyses by neighbour-joining, UPGMA, maximum parsimony and Bayesian analysis clearly indicated that the Gbx sequences formed a well supported clade and assigned these Gbx genes to the Gbx family. These data permit to confirm that the homeodomain of the Gbx family is highly conserved among these five distinct families of bivalve molluscs.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Biología Molecular y del Desarrollo, Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Instituto de Acuicultura, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782-Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: Crimgilt
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mesías-Gansbiller
authors.forename: José L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Antonio J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Pazos
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.forename: Roi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Martínez-Escauriaza
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luz Pérez-Parallé
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D049872:Bivalvia / Q000235:genetics*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018398:Homeodomain Proteins