Developmental Biology
Developmental Biology
4 years ago

At the base of colinear Hox gene expression: cis-features and trans-factors orchestrating the initial phase of Hox cluster activation

Hox genes are crucial players in the generation and pattering of the vertebrate trunk and posterior body during embryogenesis. Their initial expression takes place shortly after the establishment of the primitive streak, in the posterior-most part of the mouse embryo and is a determinant step for setting up the definitive Hox expression boundaries along the antero-posterior body axis. The developmental signals and epigenetic mechanisms underlying this early activation remained unsolved until recently. The development of novel embryo-derived model systems, combined with methods that examine chromatin status and chromosome conformation, led to deeper understanding of the process of Hox activation in the early embryo. Here we summarize how the early Hox cis-regulatory landscape becomes active upon receiving the appropriate developmental signal, and we discuss the importance of the local topological segmentation of the HoxA cluster during early Hox activation.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0012160616308648

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.