Denis Duboule, Ph.D.
University of Geneva and Federal Institute of Technology
Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract:
Hox genes are essential for proper embryonic development. In mammals, 39 genes are found clustered at four genomic loci, and their internal topological organization prefigures the place and time of their transcriptional activation. The mechanisms underlying this intriguing correspondance are elusive but recent advances start to clarify this question. I shall discuss both the importance of long-range regulations in this process and the existence of high-order chromatin topologies, which are used as physical backbones to pattern some of our axial structures.