# Viewing cross-species alignments

Cross-species Alignments and Conservation

* Query the March 2006 human genome browser gateway with the gene symbol FOXP2. View the gene on chromosome 7. Adjust the tracks displayed so that base position, chromosome band and refseq are set to full.
* Switch the Zebrafish, Dog and Mouse Net Alignments to Full. What portions of the gene are most highly conserved across all of these species? Compare the dog and mouse alignments. Based on what you see which species is more closely related to human? Why? Which species diverged from human more recently?

```
chr7:113,838,514-113,842,471
```

* Examine the pan-vertebrate conservation upstream from the transcription start site (TSS). How far from the TSS is the conserved block? Can you think of a reason why it is conserved? Can you find any tracks that could support this idea?
* Examine the details of the 7X Reg Potential track. Reconfigure the view so that it includes an indicator line at 0.05.


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