page_title: Brachyury
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brachyury / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 7.5pdc CD1 whole embryo, R&amp;D antibody 1:100, Jackson FITC Rabbit anti-Goat
context_page_description: Brachyury is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the TBXT gene. Brachyury functions as a transcription factor within the T-box family of genes. Brachyury homologs have been found in all bilaterian animals that have been screened, as well as the freshwater cnidarian Hydra.
context_section_description: The brachyury mutation was first described in mice by Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dobrovolskaya-Zavadskaya in 1927 as a mutation that affected tail length and sacral vertebrae in heterozygous animals. In  homozygous animals the brachyury mutation is lethal at around embryonic day 10 due to defects in mesoderm formation, notochord differentiation and the absence of structures posterior to the forelimb bud (Dobrovolskaïa-Zavadskaïa, 1927). The name brachyury comes from the Greek brakhus meaning short and oura meaning tail.
  In 2018 HGNC updated the human gene name from T to TBXT, presumably to overcome difficulties associated with searching for a single letter gene symbol. It is assumed that the mouse nomenclature will also be updated in due course.
  The mouse T gene was cloned by Bernhard Herrmann and colleagues and proved to encode a 436 amino acid embryonic nuclear transcription factor. T binds to a specific DNA element, a near palindromic sequence TCACACCT through a region in its N-terminus, called the T-box. T is the founding member of the T-box family which in mammals currently consists of 18 T-box genes.
  The crystal structure of the human brachyury protein was solved in 2017 by Opher Gileadi and colleagues at the Structural Genomics Consortium in Oxford.
caption: Brachyury expression in 7.5dpc CD1 mouse embryos
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