WOTTON, KR*; MAZET, F; SHIMELD, SM; University of Oxford; University of Reading; University of Oxford: Fox gene duplication in vertebrate evolution

The genome of higher vertebrates has undergone many duplication events. Often these duplication events appear to be associated with phenotypic changes. For example, during the evolution of vertebrates, mesodermal patterning has been substantially elaborated into a variety of subtypes. How this complex layout evolved is poorly understood. However, this evolutionary event may coincide with the duplication of a group of mesodermally expressed Fox genes in the vertebrate lineage, named FoxF and FoxC. The Fox genes are members of the forkhead family of transcription factors. Humans contain duplicate FOXC and FOXF genes clustered in a FOXC1-FOXF2-FOXQ1 linkage on chromosome 6 and a FOXL1-FOXC2-FOXF1 linkage on chromosome 16. When in the vertebrate lineage this duplication occurred is not clear. To investigate this I am cloning and characterising these genes from the basal vertebrates Lampetra planeri (European brook lamprey) and Scyliorhinus canicula (Dogfish) and examining the conservation of clustering in these, and in other animals, for which genomic data is available.