Table 27.1.Proposed Number of Hox Genes in Various Extant and Extinct Animals
-All things being equal,which of these is the simplest explanation for the change in the number of Hox genes from the last common ancestor of insects and vertebrates to ancestral vertebrates,as shown in Table 27.1?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The simplest explanation for the change in the number of Hox genes from the last common ancestor of insects and vertebrates to ancestral vertebrates is the occurrence of a single duplication of the entire seven-gene cluster. This is because duplicating the entire cluster at once is simpler and more efficient than multiple independent duplications of individual genes.

Table 271Proposed Number of Hox Genes in Various Extant and Extinct