Identification of 10 murine homeobox genes

In Drosophila a number of genes important in establishing segmentation patterns and in determining segment identities have been shown to carry the homeobox sequence. Over 30 murine homeobox genes have been cloned, many on the basis of sequence homology to Drosophila prototypes. Here we report the cloning and sequencing of 10 new and 6 previously known homeobox genes by screening a murine genomic library with a 768-fold degenerate oligonucleotide corresponding to the most conserved 8-amino acid motif in the recognition helix of the homeodomain. Eight of these new homeobox genes have been chromosomally mapped. Four genes do not belong to any of the known homeobox gene clusters but instead map to new locations on chromosome 1 (single gene) and chromosome 5 (three genes). Sequence comparisons indicate that two of these are very closely related and represent a distinct new category of homeobox genes. The remaining four mapped genes reside in previously established murine homeobox gene clusters. Specifically, two map to the cluster HOX-1 on chromosome 6 and one each to HOX-3 and HOX-4 on chromosome 15 and 2, respectively. The ratio of newly identified homeobox genes to the previously characterized murine homeobox genes suggests that there remain several uncharacterized homeobox genes in the murine genome.