Can you clarify the difference between homeotic genes and Hox genes?
The homeotic genes were first described in Drosophila melanogaster-the fruit fly. When people started finding these genes in other organisms, they started nicknaming them “Hox genes,” which, for some people, stood for “homeotic cognate,” so the abbreviation became “Hox.” Eventually, everyone decided that all of these homeotic genes, whatever organism they were in, one nickname they would give them was “Hox genes” and that made it very simple. So really, the only people that call their genes homeotic genes still are Drosophila people, but even now, more and more people who are working on flies simply call them a Hox gene. And that’s sort of a universal name for the whole family of homeotic genes in all animals. Can you talk about how Hox genes are fundamental to body segmentation in Drosophila development? How do you properly pattern an embryo? That question has been studied very intensively in the fruit fly. Embryogenesis in that insect only takes about one day, about 22 hours. In that
