In evolutionary developmental biology, Paired box (Pax) genes are a family of genes coding for tissue specific transcription factors containing an N-terminal paired domain and usually a partial, or in the case of four family members (PAX3, PAX4, PAX6 and PAX7), a complete homeodomain to the C-terminus. An octapeptide as well as a Pro-Ser-Thr-rich C terminus may also be present. Pax proteins are important in early animal development for the specification of specific tissues, as well as during epimorphic limb regeneration in animals capable of such. The paired domain was initially described in 1987 as the "paired box" in the Drosophila protein paired (prd; ).

Groups

Within the mammalian family, there are four well defined groups of Pax genes. Two more families, Pox-neuro and Pax-α/β, exist in basal bilaterian species. Orthologous genes exist throughout the Metazoa, including extensive study of the ectopic expression in Drosophila using murine Pax6. The two rounds of whole-genome duplications in vertebrate evolution is responsible for the creation of as many as 4 paralogs for each Pax protein.

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