INHIBITION OF EFGF EXPRESSION IN XENOPUS EMBRYOS BY ANTISENSE MESSENGER-RNA

We studied the effects in Xenopus embryos of overexpression of antisen se RNA complementary to the messenger RNA of eFGF, We show that the ex pression of sense RNA can be severely depressed in the presence of an excess of antisense RNA, This occurs by both partial destruction of th e message and by a depression of translation of the residual message, The diminution of inducing activity of eFGE; measured in animal cap as says either by activation of the Brachyury gene or by morphology paral lels the reduction of translation. Endogenous eFGF expression is reduc ed to a similar extent, again by a combination of mRNA destruction and inhibition of translation, This shows that the overexpression of anti sense RNA is, contrary to general opinion, a potentially useful techni que for studying gene function in Xenopus embryos, However, in the cas e of eFGF; there is little or no overall phenotypic effect on whole em bryos. This is probably because of the presence of several other FGFs with overlapping expression domains in the early embryo. (C) 1997 Wile y-Liss, Inc.