BCH 512: DEVELOPMENTAL GENOMICS - Week 7- Oct. 11 & 13, 2011

Instructor:  Marc Halfon

E-mail: mshalfon@buffalo.edu

Topic: Hox genes

This week we will look at an important class of patterning genes, the Hox genes. Conserved from Cnidaria to Homo sapiens, the Hox genes confer information about spatial identity and are responsible for dramatic phenotypes such as flies with legs growing out of their heads. We will mainly focus on extending our discussion of Drosophila pattern formation to see how the segments we saw formed last week receive individual specific identities. Our paper for Thursday will look at an intriguing extension of this in human beings.

Assigned reading:

This paper should be read for Tuesday's class:

Pearson, J. C., D. Lemons, et al. (2005). "Modulating Hox gene functions during animal body patterning." 6(12): 893-904.

A slightly long but very good review of things Hox

Rinn, J. L., C. Bondre, et al. (2006). "Anatomic Demarcation by Positional Variation in Fibroblast Gene Expression Programs." PLoS Genetics 2(7): e119.

(This will be the paper for discussion)

Recommended reading:

Wolpert, "Principles of Development," Chapter 5.

A brief, but very clear and up-to-date treatment of pattern formation in Drosophila.

Gilbert, "Developmental Biology," Chapter 9.

A more in-depth treatment than that found in Wolpert; more detail than we'll cover in class, but worth the read.

Maeda, R. K. and F. Karch (2006). "The ABC of the BX-C: the bithorax complex explained." Development 133(8): 1413-1422.

A thorough but readable introduction to the Biothorax Complex in Drosophila.

Slides and lecture notes: will be posted here following class

Web resources: