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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Salamander Hox Clusters Contain Repetitive Dna And Expanded Non-Coding Regions: A Typical Hox Structure For Non-Mammalian Tetrapod Vertebrates?, Stephen Randal Voss, Srikrishna Putta, John A. Walker, Jeremiah J. Smith, Nobuyasu Maki, Panagiotis A. Tsonis
Salamander Hox Clusters Contain Repetitive Dna And Expanded Non-Coding Regions: A Typical Hox Structure For Non-Mammalian Tetrapod Vertebrates?, Stephen Randal Voss, Srikrishna Putta, John A. Walker, Jeremiah J. Smith, Nobuyasu Maki, Panagiotis A. Tsonis
Biology Faculty Publications
Hox genes encode transcription factors that regulate embryonic and post-embryonic developmental processes. The expression of Hox genes is regulated in part by the tight, spatial arrangement of conserved coding and non-coding sequences. The potential for evolutionary changes in Hox cluster structure is thought to be low among vertebrates; however, recent studies of a few non-mammalian taxa suggest greater variation than originally thought. Using next generation sequencing of large genomic fragments (>100 kb) from the red spotted newt (Notophthalamus viridescens), we found that the arrangement of Hox cluster genes was conserved relative to orthologous regions from other vertebrates, but the …
Lens Regeneration In Axolotl: New Evidence Of Developmental Plasticity, Rinako Suetsugu-Maki, Nobuyasu Maki, Saulius Sumanas, Jie Zhu, Katia Del Rio-Tsonis, Panagiotis A. Tsonis
Lens Regeneration In Axolotl: New Evidence Of Developmental Plasticity, Rinako Suetsugu-Maki, Nobuyasu Maki, Saulius Sumanas, Jie Zhu, Katia Del Rio-Tsonis, Panagiotis A. Tsonis
Biology Faculty Publications
Background: Among vertebrates lens regeneration is most pronounced in newts, which have the ability to regenerate the entire lens throughout their lives. Regeneration occurs from the dorsal iris by transdifferentiation of the pigment epithelial cells. Interestingly, the ventral iris never contributes to regeneration. Frogs have limited lens regeneration capacity elicited from the cornea during pre-metamorphic stages. The axolotl is another salamander which, like the newt, regenerates its limbs or its tail with the spinal cord, but up until now all reports have shown that it does not regenerate the lens.
Conservation Of The Three-Dimensional Structure In Non-Homologous Or Unrelated Proteins, Konstantinos Sousounis, Carl E. Haney, Jin Cao, Bharath Sunchu, Panagiotis A. Tsonis
Conservation Of The Three-Dimensional Structure In Non-Homologous Or Unrelated Proteins, Konstantinos Sousounis, Carl E. Haney, Jin Cao, Bharath Sunchu, Panagiotis A. Tsonis
Biology Faculty Publications
In this review, we examine examples of conservation of protein structural motifs in unrelated or non-homologous proteins. For this, we have selected three DNA-binding motifs: the histone fold, the helix-turn-helix motif, and the zinc finger, as well as the globin-like fold. We show that indeed similar structures exist in unrelated proteins, strengthening the concept that three-dimensional conservation might be more important than the primary amino acid sequence.
Tubulin Evolution In Insects: Gene Duplication And Subfunctionalization Provide Specialized Isoforms In A Functionally Constrained Gene Family, Mark G. Nielsen, Sudhindra R. Gadagkar, Lisa Gutzwiller
Tubulin Evolution In Insects: Gene Duplication And Subfunctionalization Provide Specialized Isoforms In A Functionally Constrained Gene Family, Mark G. Nielsen, Sudhindra R. Gadagkar, Lisa Gutzwiller
Biology Faculty Publications
Background: The completion of 19 insect genome sequencing projects spanning six insect orders provides the opportunity to investigate the evolution of important gene families, here tubulins. Tubulins are a family of eukaryotic structural genes that form microtubules, fundamental components of the cytoskeleton that mediate cell division, shape, motility, and intracellular trafficking. Previous in vivo studies in Drosophila find a stringent relationship between tubulin structure and function; small, biochemically similar changes in the major alpha 1 or testis-specific beta 2 tubulin protein render each unable to generate a motile spermtail axoneme. This has evolutionary implications, not a single non-synonymous substitution is …