# GENETIC CONTROL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYS

> **NIH NIH R01** · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 1994 · $80,711

## Abstract

The bithorax gene complex (BX-C) in Drosophila is a model system for
studying how genes regulate growth and development.  The complex spans over
300 Kb of DNA and comprises a series of protein-coding and cis-acting
genetic units that act as master regulators of the growth and development
of much of the thorax and abdomen of the organism.  The broad objectives
are (1) to determine how the individual genetic units of the complex are
themselves regulated such that they become expressed along the body axis of
the organism in an order that exactly parallels their order in the
chromosomes; and (2) to determine the reason that the genes of the complex
have remained tightly linked over the immense evolutionary time period
since the cluster is believed to have arisen.  The specific goals are: (1)
to saturate in so far as practical cis-regulatory regions of the BX-C with
chromosomal breakpoints ; (2) to characterize such breakpoints genetically,
cytologically and morphologically in order to determine the specific
subfunctions controlled by each cis-regulatory region; (3) to derive in so
far as practical a complete series of deletions of variable length within
the BX-C; and (4) to test the hypothesis that the BX-C and other similar
types of gene clusters have remained intact over long evolutionary time
periods as the result of a sharing of cis-regulatory regions between
adjacent structural genes of the clusters.  Health relatedness: Mutations
within cognates of the BX-C genes in human beings may be at the basis of
many types of congenital malformations and may also be responsible for many
types of tumors.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2194968
- **Project number:** 5R01HD006331-23
- **Recipient organization:** CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** U2JMKHNS5TG4
- **Principal Investigator:** EDWARD B LEWIS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1994
- **Award amount:** $80,711
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1977-01-01 → 1997-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2194968

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2194968, GENETIC CONTROL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYS (5R01HD006331-23). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2194968. Licensed CC0.

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