期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1982
卷号:79
期号:6
页码:1776-1780
DOI:10.1073/pnas.79.6.1776
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Xenopus cells, like many other eukaryotic cells, respond to heat treatments by increasing the rate of synthesis of a few characteristic proteins, the heat shock proteins. Because of the generality of this response, it seemed possible to examine the expression of isolated heat shock genes in a heterologous system. Phage 122 DNA, containing two identical genes coding for the Drosophila 70,000-dalton heat shock protein (hsp70 genes), was microinjected into Xenopus oocyte nuclei. The Drosophila hsp70 genes are transcribed efficiently in heat-treated oocytes (35-37 degrees C) to give RNA of the correct size and sequence content. Transcription is sensitive to low levels of alpha-amanitin and therefore is carried out by RNA polymerase II. At normal temperatures (20-28 degrees C) essentially no Drosophila-specific RNA is formed. The isolated insert fragment of phage 122 also gives RNA of correct length in heat-treated oocytes which hybridizes to the coding segment of Drosophila hsp70 genes only. At normal temperatures, however, its rate of transcription is variable and only RNA heterogeneous in size is formed.