Pepsinogen gene transcription induced in heterologous epithelial-mesenchymal recombinations of chicken endoderms and glandular stomach mesenchyme.

Proventricular (glandular stomach) mesenchyme of chicken embryos can induce endoderms of some parts of embryonic digestive tract to produce embryonic chicken pepsinogen (ECPg), a marker protein for the differentiation of embryonic proventricular epithelium. In the present study, we investigated the production of ECPg mRNA in the course of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions between endoderms of digestive tract and proventricular mesenchyme. ECPg mRNA was detected by Northern hybridization with ECPg cDNA as a probe. In normal development of the proventriculus, ECPg mRNA was first detected at day 7 of incubation, and it ceased to be produced by day 21. Embryonic esophagus, gizzard and small intestine did not contain ECPg mRNA. When 6-day esophagus, gizzard or proventricular endoderm was associated and cultured with 6-day proventricular mesenchyme, the recombinates formed proventricular-gland-like complex glands and produced ECPg mRNA in almost equal quantity. However, 6-day small intestinal or 3.5-day allantoic endoderm did not produce pepsinogen mRNA under the same conditions, though the recombinates formed complex glands. These results indicate that the proventricular mesenchyme can induce de novo transcription of ECPg gene in esophagus, proventricular and gizzard endoderms, and that ECPg gene in small intestinal and allantoic endoderms fails to react to the inducing signal.