Skip Navigation


Journal Molluscan Studies Advance Access originally published online on March 9, 2006
Journal of Molluscan Studies 2006 72(3):259-266; doi:10.1093/mollus/eyl001
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
72/3/259    most recent
eyl001v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Iijima, M.
Right arrow Articles by Endo, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Iijima, M.
Right arrow Articles by Endo, K.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Malacological Society of London, all rights reserved

Evolution of Hox genes in molluscs: a comparison among seven morphologically diverse classes

Minoru Iijima1,*, Natsumi Akiba2,*, Isao Sarashina1, Shigeru Kuratani3 and Kazuyoshi Endo1

1 Department of Earth Evolution Sciences, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan; 2 Department of Geosciences, Graduate School of Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Japan; and 3 Laboratory for Evolutionary Morphology, Center for Developmental Biology, RIKEN, Kobe, Japan

Correspondence: Minoru Iijima; mezma{at}arsia.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp

Hox genes have pivotal roles in animal body plan formation. We identified Hox genes and inferred the organizations of the Hox gene hypothetical ancestral cluster by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) survey for the phylum Mollusca, so as to assess possible correlations with morphological diversity. All the extant classes, except for Monoplacophora, were examined, namely Solenogastres, Caudofoveata, Polyplacophora, Cephalopoda, Gastropoda, Scaphopoda, and Bivalvia. The result showed that the molluscs primarily possessed anterior, medial and posterior cognates of the Hox genes, ParaHox genes (Gsx, Xlox, and Cdx homologues), as well as non-Hox/ParaHox type homeobox genes (Gbx and Msx homologues). The last common ancestor of molluscs is inferred to have had twelve Hox genes: three anterior, seven medial and two posterior cognates. These results suggest that some of the anterior or posterior cognates have been lost in some lineages, most notably in Caudofoveata, while the medial cognates showed both losses and duplications. One of the medial cognates was found to be duplicated in all the classes examined except for Gastropoda, but not in other Metazoa, suggesting that this feature could be a synapomorphy of molluscs.

* Authors M. Iijima and N. Akiba contributed equally to the present study.

revised 18 August 2005; accepted 12 December 2005)


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.