| 要旨 |
The HOX gene clusters are known to be responsible for body axis formation. We conducted molecular evolutionary analyses of ape and human HOX A genomic nucleotide sequences, encompassing the HoxA4- A7. PCR primers were made based on the human genome sequence and corresponding orthologous DNA sequences were determined for chimpanzee (30kb), gorilla (25kb), and orangutan (21kb). These newly determined nucleotide sequences were compared with already determined sequences for human, baboon, and mouse. The overall sequence difference between human and chimpanzee was 0.8%, considerably lower than the corresponding genomic value of 1.2-1.5%. Through simultaneous comparison of multiple species, we detected some human specific amino acid changes and various evolutionarily conserved regions within hominoids, within primates, and within mammals.
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