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Isolation of the Xenopus nrp‐1 gene and analysis of its expression following the midblastula transition in injected Xenopus embryos
Author(s) -
O'Connell Marcia L.,
Rebbert Martha L.,
Dawid Igor B.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
development, growth and differentiation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1440-169X
pISSN - 0012-1592
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-169x.1996.t01-3-00012.x
Subject(s) - xenopus , gene , biology , reporter gene , tata box , chloramphenicol acetyltransferase , microbiology and biotechnology , transcription (linguistics) , gene expression , transcription factor , embryo , genetics , promoter , linguistics , philosophy
During embryogenesis the differentiation of distinct tissues is marked by the expression of tissue‐specific genes. In Xenopus , the neural‐specific gene nrp‐1 is activated following the midblastula transition (MBT), and is then expressed exclusively in developing neural tissue. To pursue an investigation of the transcriptional regulation of nrp‐1 , the genomic DNA encoding nrp‐1 was isolated and its structure analyzed. Nrp‐1 lacks a canonical TATA box proximal to the start site of transcription, but the 5′ flanking sequence is highly GC‐rich. Injection studies with nrp ‐1/chloramphenicol acetyltransferase and luciferase constructs demonstrate that in Xenopus embryos, 200 nt of the 5′ flanking sequence of nrp‐1 are sufficient to drive the expression of reporter genes soon after the MBT, albeit not in a tissue‐specific manner. This expression is enhanced by the inclusion of larger regions of the nrp‐1 gene.