Homeotic+Genes

Homeotic Genes Have you ever wondered why your head is at the top of your body? Or why your arms are where they are? If you have, the answer is **homeotic genes.** Homeotic genes control where features will develop on an organism (1).

One product of homeotic genes are called **Hox genes**. Hox genes give positional information to an animal embryo, which in turn makes cells develop appropriate structures at a particular location (2). If there are any changes in Hox genes, there will be a large impact on morphology (3).

(1) AP Edition Biology, Seventh Edition, Campbell and Reece (2) AP Edition Biology, Seventh Edition, Campbell and Reece (3) AP Edition Biology, Seventh Edition, Campbell and Reece