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Analysis Of Distal-Less Gene Expression In Ciona Intestinalis, Michelle Cangiano

Senior Honors Projects

Several homeobox-containing genes related to Distal-less (Dlx/Dll) have been isolated from a wide variety of organisms and have been shown to function as developmental regulators. In Drosophila only one Distal-less gene has been identified so far, and in vertebrates many components of the Distal-less family have been characterized. This suggests that, during the evolution of the Chordate phylum, the Dlx genes arose from an ancestral Distal-less gene via gene duplication. Three Dll homeoboxes have been isolated from the protochordate Ciona intestinalis and their clustered arrangement has been described. Since Ciona is regarded as one of the most primitive extant chordates, …