Research in progress on comparative study and identification of possible similarity of genetic sequences for EMX, OTX, PHOX2 and MEIS, Homeobox genes involved in the phylo-ontogenetic development of the human brain and the non-human primate one

A significant part of the overall research program that the unit founded by Prof. B. Chiarelli, the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group of the University of Florence, wants to promote, is the study of the evolution of the central nervous system of humans and of non-human Primates, using the genomic sequences of Homeobox genes such as OTX1, OTX2, EMX1, EMX2, PHOX2a, PHOX2b, MEIS1 and MEIS2. Different families of the Homeobox genes control the first stages of embryonic development, and regulate the disposition of the different parts of the body along its principal axis. These "architect-genes", as defined by Edoardo Boncinelli, are regulatory elements, which control the activity of other genes that act as "executors". With this project we aim to study some of these Homeobox genes in humans and to try to understand their function during the course of the evolution of the human brain and of the one of other Primates (Pan troglodytes, Pongo pygmaeus, Macaca mulatta and Callithrix jacchus). Indeed, as the brain neocortex is organized in columnar structures of neurons on which is based the evolutionary variability of the human brain, the molecular interactions which control its organization are object of this research project. Moreover, the information collected on the functioning of Homeobox genes for the development of the brain will provide the possibility of identifying and characterizing the mutants of some of these, involved in the pathogenesis of different cerebral tumors, correlating genic alterations with these pathological conditions.