Hoxful Monsters

Apologies for not updating the blog for past few days ,being in final year of p.hd it gets sometimes very difficult to get some time out for blog. Need to finish many experiments in order to get my project in some good shape. Lot of genetic experiments and also invitro stuff are keeping me busy.But will try to write some updates as many interesting things are coming up in the field of evolution and developmental biology. Today we will check some interesting articles and reviews which appeared last week …

A post-doctoral position is available in the laboratory of Marie-Anne Felix, Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS- University Paris 7, Paris, France, starting in the spring of 2009. Possible projects include quantitative studies of the inter cellular signalling network involved in C. elegans vulva development and evolutionary studies of vulva development in the Caenorhabditis genus. For interested candidates, please send a letter of motivation, a Curriculum Vitae and a list of three referees.
Marie-Anne Felix e-mail:felix@ijm.jussieu.fr

Its really heartening to read an article which has neatly designed genetic experiments because its not very often you come across such great genetic work.It surprised me a bit initially not see any biochemical evidence but I personally like this way, may be being a geneticist at heart.Latest issue of development contains an article from the group of Ernesto Sanchez herrero ( an exceptional geneticist) dealing with autoregulation of Hox gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx). Infact autoregulation of Ubx was known since early 90’s but not much was known about mechanism involved …

In order to perform comparative study of Homeodomain containing genes within and in between species ,requires a evolutionary based classification, HomeoDB does that to perfection.

HomeoDB was designed and implemented as a manually curated database to collect and present homeobox genes in an evolutionarily structured way, allowing genes, gene families and gene classes to be compared between species more readily than was possible previously.
In the first release of HomeoDB ,all homeodomain genes from Amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae ), fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster and Humans are included .Soon one might expect addition …

The symposium is being organized as a satellite meeting to the international Human Genome Symposium being held in India this year (Sept 2008). The focus of the satellite symposium is to highlight genomic approaches in model organisms and the relevance of these genomic approaches in furthering understanding of complex diseases and drug discovery. The range of model organisms covered includes invertebrates (Drosophila and C. elegans), and vertebrates (Zebrafish and mouse) with a few related talks on human disease.
October 1-2, 2008
Deadline for registrations : 1 September 2008
Conducted @ NCBS …

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who will become vice president if John McCain is elected president ,expressed her views on ever going debate of evolution and creation.
“Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. “Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject — …

Homeodomain containing transcription factors are vital for proper development and differentiation in animals,plants and fungi. This 60 amino acid conserved DNA binding motif is found in six different class of proteins: ANTP, PRD, POU, LIM, SIX and TALE. Huge gene diversity in Antennapedia class of homeodomain proteins account for evolution of body plans,regulation of body axis formation,symmetry and Nervous system.
The ANTP superclass consists of the Hox/ParaHox, extended Hox, and NKL genes (their relatedness complies with the above order). All Bilateria possess Hox/ParaHox,NKL, and extended Hox genes . and many of …