Miyata S, Tachibana K, Takano T, Asano M, Shiokawa K, Kihara H K
Laboratory of Research for Biosynthesis and Metabolism, Keio University, School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1993 Mar 31;191(3):1354-62. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1993.1366.
The c-myc protein has been implicated in cell proliferation and differentiation of various cell lines, but its function in early embryos of Xenopus is obscure. We introduced the c-myc gene into embryos using a pcDL-SR alpha plasmid with an efficient promoter of the gene. It was found that fertilized eggs injected with the c-myc gene were arrested at the 4-cell stage within 1 h of the injection, when the plasmid that carried c-myc gene but not the plasmid that carried defective c-myc gene was injected. These results also suggest that Xenopus embryos already have the ability to transcribe an exogenously injected c-myc gene at the 4-cell stage.
