rax, a novel paired-type homeobox gene, shows expression in the anterior neural fold and developing retina

摘要

Development of the vertebrate eye has been found to require the activity of several genes encoding home- odomain proteins (Freund, C., Horsford, D. J. & McInnes, R. R. (1996) Hum. Mol. Genet. 5, 1471-1488). Some of these genes, or portions thereof, are highly conserved across phyla. In this paper, we report the identification of a novel homeobox gene, rax (retina and anterior neural fold homeobox), whose ex- pression pattern suggests an important role in eye develop- ment. The predicted amino acid sequence of Rax comprises a protein with a paired-type homeobox, as well as the octapep tide that is found in many paired-type homeobox genes.