Hox genes are a group of related genes that determine the basic structure and orientation of animals and plants. 'Hox' is short for 'homeobox'.
Hox genes are critical for the proper placement of segment structures of animals during early embryonic development (e.g. legs, antennae, and wings in fruit flies or the different vertebrate ribs in humans).
simple collinearity diagram
Homeobox gene expression in
Drosophila melanogaster