the small intestine both expressed a Hox code consistent with a major vagal and minor thoracic origin of these cells. Sensory and sympathetic neurons, as well as satellite glia, expressed Hox genes from all rostrocaudal levels (lumbar cells were not analyzed in the sympathetic nervous system). However, curiously, sympathetic neurons showed highly preferential expression from the HoxC cluster only. This is reminiscent of the role of the HoxD cluster during digit formation (Deschamps, 2008) and suggests that the HoxC cluster may be involved in the specification of distinct sympathetic cell types along some spatial axis.
