EXPRESSION OF THE EPIDERMIS-SPECIFIC GENE EP37 BEFORE AND AFTER METAMORPHOSIS OF THE JAPANESE NEWT, CYNOPS-PYRRHOGASTER

We studied expression of the epidermis-specific gene, designated ep37, by means of Northern blotting in various tissues and at different dev elopmental stages of the Japanese newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster. Using the coding region of ep37 cDNA as a probe, we detected five RNA species. Of these, two were found before metamorphosis and the other three were detected in adult tissues. Amounts of the pre-metamorphic products ma rkedly decreased and two of the three adult products promptly appeared at metamorphosis. These observations along with the difference in aff inity of each RNA species to the cDNA probe suggest that the ep37 gene is a member of a novel epidermis-specific gene family, the expression of which is under metamorphic regulation.