This gene belongs to the homeobox family, members of which encode a highly conserved family of transcription factors that play an important role in morphogenesis in all multicellular organisms. Mammals possess four similar homeobox gene clusters, HOXA, HOXB, HOXC and HOXD, which are located on different chromosomes and consist of 9 to 11 genes arranged in tandem. This gene, HOXC6, is one of several HOXC genes located in a cluster on chromosome 12. Three genes, HOXC5, HOXC4 and HOXC6, share a 5' non-coding exon. Transcripts may include the shared exon spliced to the gene-specific exons, or they may include only the gene-specific exons. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified for HOXC6. Transcript variant two includes the shared exon, and transcript variant one includes only gene-specific exons. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]