Antennapedia: The complexity of a master developmental transcription factor
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Updated: Jul 13, 2025

Author Spotlight: An Integrated Workflow to Study the Promoter-Centric Spatio-Temporal Genome Architecture in Scarce Cell Populations
Published on: April 21, 2023
Marco Rosales-Vega1, Diana Reséndez-Pérez2, Martha Vázquez1
1Departamento de Genética del Desarrollo y Fisiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
Abstract:
Hox genes encode transcription factors that play an important role in establishing the basic body plan of animals. In Drosophila, Antennapedia is one of the five genes that make up the Antennapedia complex (ANT-C). Antennapedia determines the identity of the second thoracic segment, known as the mesothorax. Misexpression of Antennapedia at different developmental stages changes the identity of the mesothorax, including the muscles, nervous system, and cuticle. In Drosophila, Antennapedia has two distinct promoters highly regulated throughout development by several transcription factors. Antennapedia proteins are found with other transcription factors in different ANTENNAPEDIA transcriptional complexes to regulate multiple subsets of target genes. In this review, we describe the different mechanisms that regulate the expression and function of Antennapedia and the role of this Hox gene in the development of Drosophila.
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