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Organization of the Fugu rubripes Hox clusters: evidence for continuing evolution of vertebrate Hox complexes

Nature Genetics volume 16, pages 79–83 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

The clustered organization of Hox genes provides a powerful opportunity to examine gene gain and loss in evolution because physical linkage is a key diagnostic feature which allows homology to be established unambiguously. Furthermore, Hox genes play a key role in determination of axial and appendicular skeletal morphology1,2 and may be a key component of the evolution of diverse metazoan body forms. Despite suggestions that changes in Hox gene number played a role in evolution of metazoan body plans3,4, there has been a general lack of evidence for such variation amongst gnathostomes (or indeed any vertebrate) and it has therefore been widely assumed that differential regulation may be the key element in all vertebrate Hox evolution. We have studied the Hox gene clusters of a teleost fish, Fugu rubripes, to test the possibility that Hox organization may have varied since the origin of jawed vertebrates. We have identified four Hox complexes in Fugu and found an unprecedented degree of variation when compared with tetrapod clusters. Our data show that: Fugu clusters are widely variant with respect to length; at least nine genes have been lost; there is a new group-2 paralogue; and pseudogene remnants of group-1 and group-3 paralogues were found in the Hoxc complex, when compared with the present mammalian clusters. We show that gene loss after duplication of the prototypical vertebrate Hox clusters is a key feature of both tetrapod and fish evolution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wellcome/CRC Institute for Developmental Biology and Cancer Research, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QR, UK

    Samuel Aparicio & Kelvin Hawker

  2. ICRF Cell Interactions Unit, MRC Centre, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QH, UK

    Samuel Aparicio & Kelvin Hawker

  3. MRC HGMP Resource Centre, Hinxton Hall, Cambridge, CB10 1SB, UK

    Amanda Cottage

  4. The Molecular Sciences Institute, La Jolla, California, 92037, USA

    Yoshikazu Mikawa & Sydney Brenner

  5. Sequana Therapeutics, 11099 North Terry Pines Road, Suite 160, La Jolla, California, 92037, USA

    Lin Zuo

  6. IMCB, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore, 119260

    Byrappa Venkatesh

  7. Applied Biosystems Division of Perkin Elmer Corp, Advanced Center for Genetic Technology, 850 Lincoln Centre Drive, Foster City, California, 94404, USA

    Elson Chen

  8. Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, London, NW71AA, UK

    Robb Krumlauf

Authors
  1. Samuel Aparicio
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  2. Kelvin Hawker
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  3. Amanda Cottage
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  4. Yoshikazu Mikawa
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  5. Lin Zuo
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  7. Elson Chen
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  8. Robb Krumlauf
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  9. Sydney Brenner
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Correspondence to Samuel Aparicio.

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Aparicio, S., Hawker, K., Cottage, A. et al. Organization of the Fugu rubripes Hox clusters: evidence for continuing evolution of vertebrate Hox complexes. Nat Genet 16, 79–83 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0597-79

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