Journal article
Differential roles of TGIF family genes in mammalian reproduction
Y Hu, H Yu, G Shaw, MB Renfree, AJ Pask
BMC Developmental Biology | BIOMED CENTRAL LTD | Published : 2011
Abstract
Background: TG-interacting factors (TGIFs) belong to a family of TALE-homeodomain proteins including TGIF1, TGIF2 and TGIFLX/Y in human. Both TGIF1 and TGIF2 act as transcription factors repressing TGF- signalling. Human TGIFLX and its orthologue, Tex1 in the mouse, are X-linked genes that are only expressed in the adult testis. TGIF2 arose from TGIF1 by duplication, whereas TGIFLX arose by retrotransposition to the X-chromosome. These genes have not been characterised in any non-eutherian mammals. We therefore studied the TGIF family in the tammar wallaby (a marsupial mammal) to investigate their roles in reproduction and how and when these genes may have evolved their functions and chromos..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank all members of the wallaby research group and in particular Kerry Martin and Scott Brownlees for assistance with the animals. This study was supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics; a Federation Fellowship to MBR, and a National Health and Medical Research Council R D Wright Fellowship to AJP. There is no financial or other potential conflict of interest. We also acknowledge the Albert Shimmins Fund (The University of Melbourne) for providing financial support to YH during preparation of the manuscript.