In order for the pair of wings and the pair of halteres (as well as all other parts of the fly) to develop properly, the fly's suite of Hox genes must be expressed in a precise way and at precise ...

An international team has just identified a new species of therizinosaur with impressive claws. Its exceptionally ...

“[This was] striking, because we know that the Hox cluster is very conservative in terms of gene order,” said Elise Parey, an evolutionary biologist at University College London and a study coauthor.

In particular, biologists have suspected that the insects' progression to six legs, and the evolution and modification of arthropod appendages in general, are driven by changes in Hox gene activity.

Hox genes and their relatives are involved in several developmental processes in diverse animals, but when did they first arise? The genome sequence of the sponge Amphimedon queenslandica shows ...

However, later in the cascades of nearly all insects and vertebrates, the Hox genes play a role in identifying each segment and defining what part of the body each segment will become (Figure 5).