Science for all | What are Hox genes?

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Almost all animals from humans to fish have a anterior-posterior axis, which is a line that runs from head to tail. In the gestational stage, Hox genes act as architects, and direct the roadmap for where cells go along the axis, as well as what body parts they make up. Hox genes ensure that organs and tissues develop in the right place, such as ensuring the limbs in mammals or the wings of birds end up at their correct anatomical positions.

If Hox genes fail through mis-regulation or mutation, cells can get lost, playing a role in some cancers, birth defects, and miscarriages.

Despite their importance in development, Hox genes are challenging to study. They are tightly organised in clusters. While many parts of the genome have repetitive elements, Hox clusters have no such repeats. These factors make them unique but difficult to study with conventional gene editing techniques without affecting neighbouring Hox genes.

Researchers at New York University recently created artificial Hox genes, which plan and direct where cells go to develop into tissues or organs, using new synthetic DNA technology and genomic engineering in stem cells.

The researchers discovered that these gene-dense clusters alone contain all of the information needed for cells to decode a positional signal and remember it which suggests that the compact nature of Hox clusters is what helps cells learn their location.

The creation of synthetic DNA and artificial Hox genes paves the way for future research on animal development and human diseases.

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