Expression of the glucocorticoid receptor gene is regulated during early embryogenesis of Xenopus laevis

Xiangming Gao*, Eric Kalkhoven, Joselin Peterson-Maduro, Bart van der Burg, Olivier H.J. Destrée

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

To study the possible role of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in early embryogenesis, we isolated a Xenopus glucocorticoid receptor cDNA from an embryonic stage 17 cDNA library. Overexpression of this Xenopus GR in COS cells confers the ability to transactivate a GRE-tk CAT promoter construct in a ligand dependent manner. Expression of the Xenopus GR gene at the RNA level was analyzed by Northern blot hybridization. Transcripts of 4 and 6 kb are present in oocytes. The 4 kb mRNA is abundant and is degraded together with the 6 kb mRNA during cleavage stages of early development. Between stages 17 and 24, GR messengers are extremely rare. From stage 32 onwards, both GR transcripts start to be expressed again at intermediate levels. These results provide the first evidence that expression of the GR gene is regulated during early embryonic development.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)194-198
Number of pages5
JournalBBA - Gene Structure and Expression
Volume1218
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Jun 1994
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • (Xenopus embryo)
  • Expression
  • Functional assay
  • Gene cloning
  • Glucocorticoid receptor
  • Sequence

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