PROMOTERS FROM DROSOPHILA HEAT-SHOCK-PROTEIN AND CYTOMEGALOVIRUS DRIVE TRANSIENT EXPRESSION OF LUCIFERASE INTRODUCED BY PARTICLE BOMBARDMENT INTO EMBRYOS OF THE OYSTER CRASSOSTREA-GIGAS

Using high velocity particle bombardment, we transferred a reporter ge ne into early stages of the oyster Crassostrea gigas and showed the ex pression of the introduced genes in these embryos at later stages of d evelopment. We tested two promoters: (1) the heat shock protein 70 pro moter of Drosophila; (2) the cytomegalovirus early promoter, both link ed to the luciferase reporter gene. The hsp70-luc (pDrluc) construct a llowed an expression level up to 55-fold higher than the control in a heat inducible fashion. The CMV-luc (pCMVL) construct constitutively g ave a 4-fold higher expression than the control. This confirms the sui tability of particle bombardment for transfecting genes into eggs, zyg otes and trochophores of bivalves and demonstrates the functionality o f two heterologous expression vectors in C. gigas. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience B.V.