Protein evolution of ANTP and PRD homeobox genes

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2008

Authors

Nuno A Fonseca (Author) Other; Cristina Vieira (Author) Other; Holland, PWH (Author) Other; Vieira, J (Author) Other

Journal

Title: BMC Evolutionary Biology

Vol. 8

Final page: 200

ISSN: 1471-2148

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 6 Citations

Scopus - 6 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-003-XSD

DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-8-200

Abstract (EN): Background: Although homeobox genes have been the subject of many studies, little is known about the main amino acid changes that occurred early in the evolution of genes belonging to different classes. Results: In this study, we report a method for the fast and efficient retrieval of sequences belonging to the ANTP (HOXL and NKL) and PRD classes. Furthermore, we look for diagnostic amino acid residues that can be used to distinguish HOXL, NKL and PRD genes. Conclusion: The reported protein features will facilitate the robust classification of homeobox genes from newly sequenced bilaterian genomes. Nevertheless, in non-bilaterian genomes our findings must be cautiously applied. In principle, as long as a good manually curated data set is available the approach here described can be applied to non-bilaterian organisms as well. Our results help focus experimental studies onto investigating the biochemical functions of key homeodomain residues in different gene classes.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 10