Regulatory constraints in the evolution of the tetrapod limb anterior–posterior polarity

Basile Tarchini, Denis Duboule () and Marie Kmita
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Basile Tarchini: University of Geneva, Sciences III
Denis Duboule: University of Geneva, Sciences III
Marie Kmita: University of Geneva, Sciences III

Nature, 2006, vol. 443, issue 7114, 985-988

Abstract: Tetrapods toe the line The anterior–posterior polarity of the tetrapod limb — the asymmetry that explains why your thumb is different from your little finger, for example — is laid down early by the expression of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) gene at the posterior margin of the embryonic limb bud. Shh expression is controlled in turn by genes in the HoxA and HoxD clusters. Tarchini et al. show that Shh is controlled by the more posterior members of the Hox clusters, that is, precisely those genes whose expression is excluded from most anterior limb buds due to their collinear transcriptional activation. In other words, the limbs are the shape they are as a side effect of the collinearity of Hox gene expression in the trunk, which imposes a genetic constraint on what evolution can do with the raw materials available.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05247

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