Expression of microinjected DNA and RNA in early rabbit embryos: changes in permissiveness for expression and transcriptional selectivity.

Gene expression in rabbit early development was investigated by microinjecting LacZ DNA and LacZ RNA in 1-cell and 2-cell embryos. Expression of LacZ DNA could not be obtained before 30-36 hpf, although synthetic LacZ RNA was translated from 12 hpf at the least. The onset of expression of microinjected DNA correlated with the 8- to 16-cell stage. This suggests that before this stage, there is a general negative control of gene expression. The arrest of in vitro development at the 2- to 8-cell stages did not inhibit LacZ expression, which still occurred at 33 hpf. In addition the inhibition of the first cleavage by nocodazole resulted in LacZ expression in 1-cell embryos. Expression of microinjected DNA thus occurs at a fixed time after fertilization and is independent of cleavages and of the second and subsequent DNA replications. Therefore, the changes in permissiveness for the expression of microinjected DNA in rabbit embryos are reminiscent of those in mouse embryos. Transcriptional selectivity in rabbit embryos was compared to that in early mouse embryos. In both species, Sp1-sensitive promoters were active and the promoter of simian virus 40 did not require far upstream enhancers before late cleavage stages; genes driven by the -447, +563 region of murine leukemia virus were repressed. In rabbit, however, the H-2Kb promoter active in mouse was silent. Altogether, the results illustrate a remarkable conservation of the characteristics of the transcription in early rabbit and mouse embryos and the independence of its resumption from the pattern of cleavage.