Hox genes and the evolution of animal body plans

by Dennis Sun

Animals come in many different shapes and sizes. How did all of these diverse body plans evolve? In this video, Dennis Sun describes how a group of similar genes, called Hox genes, are involved in setting up different kinds of body plans in crustaceans.

Dennis is a PhD student in the lab of Nipam Patel at UC Berkeley.

Related resources

• A document from PBS on Hox genes

• Paper on the sandhopper (Parhyale) genome

• Paper on sandhopper (Parhyale) hox gene expression analysis

• Paper analyzing hox genes in sandhopper (Parhyale) using CRISPR knockout

#evolution #genetics #evodevo #crustaceans #development #gene