Mi. Morasso et al., THE HOMEODOMAIN GENE XENOPUS DISTAL-LESS-LIKE-2 (XDLL-2) IS REGULATEDBY A CONSERVED MECHANISM IN AMPHIBIAN AND MAMMALIAN EPIDERMIS, Developmental biology, 162(1), 1994, pp. 267-276
Xenopus Distal-less-like-2 (Xdll-2) is a gene encoding a homeodomain p
rotein expressed predominantly in the epidermis of frog embryos. We re
port here that this epidermal expression is specified by a regulatory
5' flanking DNA region located within 933 bp of the start of transcrip
tion. This regulatory DNA also confers upon a globin reporter gene cal
cium-inducible expression in cultured murine keratinocytes and inducti
on-dependent repression in frog ectodermal cells treated in vitro with
activin A. These results reveal a new example of phylogenetically con
served, tissue-specific transcriptional regulation of a homeodomain ge
ne. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.