Pax genes

Pax genes (abbr. for paired- box genes) encode a family of tissue-specific transcription factors containing a paired domain and usually a partial or complete homeodomain. Also one of eight amino acids existing, called octapeptide sequence motif may be present.

Pax proteins are essential for the differentiation of tissues in the early stages of animals. They are also important for the epimorphic regeneration of lost body parts of the animals that are capable.

Within the class of mammals, there are four well-defined groups of Pax genes:

• Pax Group 1 ( Pax 1 and 9),
• Pax Group 2 ( Pax 2, 5 and 8 ),
• Pax Group 3 ( Pax 3 and 7) and
• Pax Group 4 ( Pax 4 and 6).

Orthologs of genes there are in the entire realm of multicellular animals. Ectopic expression in Drosophila has been studied in detail using the Pax6 mice. 2009, the research team at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, with the help of Pax4 in mice convert stem cells of the pancreas in insulin- forming beta- cells. The Pax 6 gene was discovered by Walter Jakob Gehring 1995.