AN INTERFERON REGULATORY FACTOR-RELATED GENE (XIRF-6) IS EXPRESSED INTHE POSTERIOR MESODERM DURING THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF XENOPUS-LAEVIS

Out of a Xenopus neurula cDNA library, we isolated a clone which encod es a 52.4-kDa protein highly similar to the mouse interferon regulator y factor, IRF-6, whose function is unknown. The mRNA of this gene, nam ed xIRF-6, seems to be maternally transmitted, but its amount rapidly decreases after the tailbud stage. Whole-mount in situ hybridization s howed that xIRF-6 mRNA is expressed in the presumptive semitic mesoder m in the late gastrula, and then confined to a segment of posterior so mite during the neurula through the tailbud stage. The temporally and spatially limited expression of the xIRF-6 gene product may contribute to the transcriptional regulation of specific genes which are necessa ry for the development of the posterior somites. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci ence B.V.