Pax gene

PAX genes (abbreviation for paired box genes) code for a family of tissue-specific transcription factors that contain a paired domain and usually a partial or complete homeodomain . A sequence motif called an octapeptide, consisting of eight amino acids , can also be present.

Pax proteins are in the early stage of development importance of animals for differentiation of tissues . They are also important for the epimorphic regeneration of lost body parts in animals that are capable of doing so.

Within the class of mammals there are four well-defined groups of Pax genes:

• Pax group 1 (Pax 1 and 9),
• Pax group 2 (Pax 2, 5 and 8 ),
• Pax group 3 ( Pax 3 and 7) and
• Pax group 4 (Pax 4 and 6).

Orthologous genes exist throughout the sub-kingdom of multicellular animals. The ectopic expression in Drosophila was examined in detail using the Pax 6 of mice. In 2009, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen succeeded in using Pax 4 in mice to convert stem cells from the pancreas into insulin-producing beta cells .

The Pax-6 gene was discovered by Walter Gehring in 1995. This is involved in the following diseases:

• Aniridia
• Keratitis
• Macular hypoplasia
• Morning Glory Syndrome
• Peters anomaly
• Optic nerve hypoplasia

See also

• Homeobox
• Developmental biology
• Construction plan (morphology)

literature

• S. Medic, M. Ziman: PAX3 Expression in Normal Skin Melanocytes and Melanocytic Lesions (Naevi and Melanomas). In: PLoS ONE. 5 (4), 2010, p. E9977. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0009977 . PMC 2858648 (free full text). PMID 20421967 .
• FA Scholl, J. Kamarashev, OV Murmann, R. Geertsen, R. Dummer, BW Schäfer: PAX3 is expressed in human melanomas and contributes to tumor cell survival. In: Cancer Res. 61 (3), Feb 2001, pp. 823-826. PMID 11221862 .
• S. Oustanina et al .: PAX7 directs postnatal renewal and propagation of myogenic satellite cells but not their specification. In: The EMBO Journal. 23, 2004, pp. 3430-3439. doi: 10.1038 / sj.emboj.7600346 .
• Charles S. Zuker: On the evolution of eyes: would you like it simple or compound? In: Science. 265 (5173), August 1994, pp. 742-743. doi: 10.1126 / science.8047881 . PMID 8047881 .
• Rebecca Quiring, Uwe Walldorf, U. Kloter, WJ Gehring: Homology of the eyeless gene of Drosophila to the small eye gene in mice and Aniridia in humans. In: Science. 265 (5173), August 1994, pp. 785-789. doi: 10.1126 / science.7914031 . PMID 7914031 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Paired Box Gene 6.  In: Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man . (English)