• Question: What are Hox genes for?

    Asked by nikolass to Claire, Elizabeth, Manolis, Mark, Zach on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Zach Dixon

      Zach Dixon answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hox genes are instructions for the developing embryo, telling it where all its limbs need to be!

      In flies, when Hox genes go wrong they can have legs growing out of their heads! It looks like this:

    • Photo: Elizabeth Ratcliffe

      Elizabeth Ratcliffe answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Hi nikolass, Hox genes help lay out the basic body forms of many animals, such as humans, flies, worms etc. They are like a set of directions as an embryo develops to set up the head-to-tail organization e.g. put the head here and legs here”. They are similar in many organims but because they are so powerful small changes to the genes can lead to big changes in the animal, as Zach’s pic shows.

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