High impact information on hoxb2a

• Here we study moz mutant zebrafish in which hoxa2b and hoxb2a expression is lost and the support skeleton of the second pharyngeal segment is transformed into a duplicate of the first-segment-derived jaw skeleton [1].
• To investigate pattern formation in the vertebrate hindbrain, we isolated a full length hoxb2 cDNA clone from zebrafish [2].
• Ectopic expression of hoxb2 after retinoic acid treatment or mRNA injection: disruption of hindbrain and craniofacial morphogenesis in zebrafish embryos [2].
• The results suggest that hoxb2 plays an important role in the patterning of hindbrain and pharyngeal arches in the zebrafish [2].
• In a gene phylogeny, zebrafish hoxb2 clusters with human HOXB2, and it maps on linkage group 3 along with several other loci whose orthologues are syntenic with human HOXB2 [2].

Biological context of hoxb2a

• Treatments with retinoic acid produced a phenotype similar to that of ectopic hoxb2 expression, including ectopic krx20 (but not valentino) expression in the eye, and fusion of cartilages from pharyngeal arches 1 and 2 [2].

Anatomical context of hoxb2a

• In the hindbrain, hoxb2 is expressed at high levels in rhombomere 3 (r3), lower levels in r4, still lower in r5, and at undetectable levels in r6 [2].
• In r7, r8, and the rostral spinal cord, hoxb2 is expressed at a lower level than in r5 [2].

References