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Annual review of biochemistry, 1994-01, Vol.63 (1), p.487-526
Ort / Verlag
Palo Alto, CA 94303-0139: Annual Reviews
Erscheinungsjahr
1994
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Homeotic genes are master control genes that specify the body plan and regulate development of higher organisms. They share a common sequence element of 180 bp, the homeobox, which was first discovered in Drosophila. Subsequently, the homeobox was shown to occur in all metazoa that have been analyzed, ranging from sponges to vertebrates and humans, and also in plants and in fungi. The homeobox encodes the 60-amino-acid homeodomain, which represents the DNA-binding domain of the much larger homeodomain proteins. The homeodomain allows the sequence-specific recognition of sets of target genes by the homeodomain proteins, which primarily serve a gene regulatory function and act as transcription factors that regulate target genes in a precise spatial and temporal pattern. The homeotic genes, which specify segmental identity and positional information along the antero-posterior axis, are organized into gene complexes and are aligned along the chromosome in the same order as they are expressed along the antero-posterior axis. This colinearity evolved prior to the separation of vertebrates and invertebrates, and it has been largely conserved in both major branches of the evolutionary tree. In this review, our current knowledge about the structure and function of the homeodomain is summarized, and the functional role of homeodomain proteins in DNA binding, transcriptional regulation, and developmental control is discussed.