Figure 5

Sequence conservation in the HOX C cluster in tammar, human, mouse and frog. mVISTA plot of HOX C genomic sequences from tammar, human (chr12:54332691–54396455), mouse (chr15:102751619–102814560) and frog (scaffold_226:281324–390491). The sequence similiarity (50–100%) (vertical axis) is shown in the coordinates of the genomic sequence (horizontal axis) from human, mouse and frog. Genes and their orientation are indicated by grey arrowed line. Exons of genes are indicated by blue solid boxes. Conserved regions above the level of 70%/100 bp are highlighted under the curve, with red indicating conserved non-coding regions, blue representing conserved coding-protein exons, and turquoise representing microRNAs or long non-coding protein exons. The long non-coding RNA HOTAIR located between HOXC12 and HOXC11 was conserved in all mammals and had a much lower conservation in frog. MicroRNA miR-196a2 is extremely highly conserved in all examined species. RT-PCR performed in the tammar with a single band at 81 bp confirmed the presence of the long non-coding RNA HOTAIR providing further evidence of the conservation. In addition, both microRNA miR-196a2 was expressed in tammar cells, verifying the existence of this microRNAs in tammar