In Silico Analysis of Gene Expression Network Components Underlying Pigmentation Phenotypes in the Python Identified Evolutionarily Conserved Clusters of Transcription Factor Binding Sites

Figure 9

Orthologous multiple sequence alignment of USF-1 across species. The alignment shows patterns of conservation as well as divergence between the species. The N-terminal region exhibits some distinct differences between the species interspersed with groups of strong conservation. The Myc-type, basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) DNA binding domain spans the region of the python protein beginning at position 193 and ending at position 286. Within this portion of the alignment, eight specific amino acids exhibit divergence between the species.