Background：

Many vertebrate homeo box-containing genes have been identified on the basis of their sequence similarity with Drosophila developmental genes. Members of the Dlx gene family contain a homeobox that is related to that of Distal-less (Dll)， a gene expressed in the head and limbs of the developing fruit fly. The Distal-less (Dlx) family of genes comprises at least 6 different members， DLX1-DLX6. The DLX proteins are postulated to play a role in forebrain and craniofacial development. This gene is located in a tail-to-tail configuration with another member of the gene family on the long arm of chromosome 2.