| The Sox (SRY-related high-mobility-group box) family of genes shares a conserved HMG box and is involved in a diverse range of developmental processes and sex determination in vertebrates. Twenty Sox genes are present in the genomes of humans and mice, but far less is known about the Sox gene family in reptiles. Using two pairs of highly degenerate primers designed from a multiple alignment of Sox amino acid sequences in several species, different positive clones were obtained from male and female Eremias multiocellata. These clones were sequenced and identified. They are members of the SoxB (Sox2, Sox1), SoxC(Sox11, Sox12)and SoxE (Sox9a, Sox9b, Sox10) groups. No sex-specific differences were observed. Based on the amino acid sequence similarities, the phylogenetic analysis was carried out and these genes clustered with their orthologues. Relative real-time PCR analysis showed that Sox9was expressed in all the six tissues from both male and female. In male adult, prominent expressions of Sox9were found in testicle and brain tissues. In female adult, Sox9was abundantly expressed only in brain. The least expressions occurred in male muscle tissue and ovary tissue, respectively. Except for gonad tissue, the expression levels in other five tissues were higher in female than in male. The differences of Sox9expression in brain (P<0.01) and gonad (P<0.001) tissue between male and female were significant, but not in other four tissues. Besides the expressions of Sox9gene in testis were significantly higher than that of female. In addition, we found the gene duplication in E.multiocellata, it may be a mechanism to produce new functional genes. |
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