The study of gene function at later stages of embryonic development by over
expression experiments is often complicated by genes exerting different fun
ctions at multiple stages of development, which renders analysis of stage-s
pecific effects difficult. To address this problem an inducible expression
system that supports timed expression of essentially any protein, including
secreted proteins was designed. The system is based on a two step mechanis
m. A glucocorticoid inducible, Gal4-site binding chimeric transcription fac
tor is expressed ubiquitously whereas a gene of interest is placed under th
e control of a Gal4-site driven promoter. Treatment of zebrafish embryos in
jected with such constructs with the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone
results in readily detectable reporter activity within 3 h. The system was
tested with induced expression of Xactivin beta B and Xwnt which both were
shown to induce morphological abnormalities, as well as alterations in the
expression patterns of goosecoid and otx2, respectively. Coinjection of an
inducible lacZ reporter vector served as an indicator for expressing cells
in embryos. The present results demonstratrate that this is a versatile in
ducible expression system for use in vertebrate embryos, that also supports
expression of secreted proteins.