Colinearity and non-colinearity in the expression of Hox genes in developing chick skin

Hox genes are usually expressed temporally and spatially in a colinear manner with respect to their positions in the Hox complex. We found that these characteristics apply to several Hox genes expressed in developing chick skin (Hoxb-4, Hoxa-7 and Hoxc-8), and we classed this group of genes as regionally restricted. To our surprise, we found that most of the Hox genes we examined are regionally unrestricted in their expression in the embryonic chick skin. This second group includes the Hoxd genes, Hoxd-4 to Hoxd-13, Hoxa-11 and Hoxc-6. Temporally, the expression of the regionally restricted genes can be observed by E5 within the epidermis, whereas the spatially unrestricted genes are not expressed in the epidermis until E6.25. Unexpectedly, we found that all the unrestricted genes are expressed concomitantly and therefore do not conform to temporal colinearity. Moreover, the dermal expression for both groups occurs later, but maintains the same anteroposterior patterning to that seen previously in the epidermis. During embryonic day 7-8, expression for all genes is up-regulated within the dense dermis whilst being reduced within the inter-bud regions. Later expression within the bud mesenchyme is down-regulated whilst high levels of transcriptional activity are detectable within the epidermal sheath of each feather bud. These results indicate that the transcriptional activity of Hox genes in the developing chick skin could be important during embryonic skin patterning both by providing regionally restricted positional cues, and also by imparting generic signals necessary for feather morphology.