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The Fox genes of Branchiostoma floridae

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Abstract

The Fox genes are united by encoding a fork head domain, a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-binding domain of the winged-helix type that marks these genes as encoding transcription factors. Vertebrate Fox genes are classified into 23 subclasses named from FoxA to FoxS. We have surveyed the genome of the amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae, identifying 32 distinct Fox genes representing 21 of these 23 subclasses. The missing subclasses, FoxR and FoxS, are specific to vertebrates, and in addition, B. floridae has one further group, FoxAB, that is not found in vertebrates. Hence, we conclude B. floridae has maintained a high level of Fox gene diversity. Expressed sequence tag and complementary DNA sequence data support the expression of 23 genes. Several linkages between B. floridae Fox genes were noted, including some that have evolved relatively recently via tandem duplication in the amphioxus lineage and others that are more ancient.

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Acknowledgements

FM and SMS acknowledge the support of the BBSRC. FM is supported by a Springboard Fellowship from the University of Reading. Work in the JKY laboratory is supported by start-up funding from Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Republic of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Jr-Kai Yu, Yen-Ta Chen, Song-Wei Huang & Kuo-Chen Jung

  2. School of Biological Sciences, AMS Building, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AJ, UK

    Francoise Mazet

  3. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, The Tinbergen Building, South Parks, Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK

    Sebastian M. Shimeld

Authors
  1. Jr-Kai Yu
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  2. Francoise Mazet
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  3. Yen-Ta Chen
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  4. Song-Wei Huang
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  5. Kuo-Chen Jung
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  6. Sebastian M. Shimeld
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastian M. Shimeld.

Additional information

Communicated by J.J. Gibson-Brown

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ESM 1

Alignments used in phylogenetic analyses. Please see main text, Table 1 and figures for full gene models and accession numbers (DOC 103 KB)

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Yu, JK., Mazet, F., Chen, YT. et al. The Fox genes of Branchiostoma floridae . Dev Genes Evol 218, 629–638 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-008-0229-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-008-0229-9

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