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Chapter category: Gene Expression

Evolutionary Genomics of Hox Gene Clusters

This chapter appears in the following book:

HOX Gene Expression

Edited by: Spyros Papageorgiou
ISBN: 978-0-387-68989-0
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

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The evolution of Hox clusters in vertebrates follows different patterns than those of in-vertebrate clusters. More stringent structural constraints in vertebrates are apparent from tighter cluster organization and the systematic expulsion of repetitive material. We speculate that the tendency of vertebrates to maintain Hox clusters after genome duplications might be related to these stricter constraints. Duplications may temporarily lift these constraints, thereby opening a window of adaptive opportunity for functional differentiation of the Hox genes that eventually leads to their fixation.

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