The preferential translation of Drosophila hsp70 mRNA requires sequences in the untranslated leader.

When Drosophila cells are heat shocked, the translation of normal cellular mRNAs is repressed, while mRNAs encoding the heat-shock proteins are translated at high rates. We have found that the hsp70 message is not translated at high temperatures when its leader sequence is deleted. This message is translated when the cells are allowed to recover at 25 degrees C, but the translation ceases when the cells are given a second heat shock. A message with an extra 39 bases added onto the 5' end of the leader behaves in the same way. However, if either of two conserved sequence elements in the leader is deleted, the message is still translated during heat shock. Although the specific feature responsible for the preferential translation of heat-shock messages is not yet identified, we conclude that it must reside in the 5' untranslated leader.