Figure 1. Conserved inverted repeat elements upstream of Agrp.

(A) Matrix comparison of human (X-axis) and platypus (Y-axis) genomic sequences at the Agrp locus with a stringency threshold set at 70% identity over a 30 bp window reveals conservation in Agrp coding exons (shaded areas) and in the upstream region, representative of similar comparisons between distantly related mammalian species. For reference, the position of Agrp exonic sequence is shown on either axis, with coding sequence in red and non-coding sequence in grey. Sequence similarity between forward and reverse strands is plotted in black and red, respectively. (B) Shows the genomic locus containing Agrp and neighboring genes, MKIAA1930 and Atp6v0d1. The blue boxes indicate areas of mouse/human sequence conservation located within a functionally defined Agrp regulatory region [16]. The relative position of the conserved IREs (in yellow) and the STAT binding sites (in red) upstream of Agrp are illustrated below. Sequence similarity and the symmetrical structure of the elements reveal an ancient duplication within the Agrp region, the axis of which is indicated by a vertical, dashed line.