Elsevier

Mechanisms of Development

Volume 96, Issue 1, 1 August 2000, Pages 141-144
Mechanisms of Development

Gene expression pattern
Homeobrain, a novel paired-like homeobox gene is expressed in the Drosophila brain

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Abstract

The homeobrain (hbn) gene is a new paired-like homeobox gene which is expressed in the embryonic brain and the ventral nerve cord. Expression of homeobrain initiates during the blastoderm stage in the anterior dorsal head primordia and the gene is persistently expressed in these cells which form parts of the brain during later embryonic stages. An additional weaker expression pattern is detected in cells of the ventral nerve cord from stage 11 on. The homeodomain in the Homeobrain protein is most similar to the Drosophila proteins DRx, Aristaless and Munster. In addition, the localized brain expression patterns of homeobrain and DRx resemble each other. Two other homeobox genes, orthopedia and DRx are clustered in the 57B region along with homeobrain. The current evidence indicates that homeobrain, DRx and orthopedia form a homeobox gene cluster in which all the members are expressed in specific embryonic brain subregions.

Keywords

Homeobrain
Homeobox gene
Embryonic brain

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1

Present address: Naturwissenschaftliches und Medizinisches Institut NMI, Markwiesenstraβe 55, D-72770 Reutlingen, Germany.