Distal cis-acting elements restrict expression of the CyIIIb actin gene in the aboral ectoderm of the sea urchin embryo.

The distal region of the S. purpuratus actin CyIIIb gene, between -400 and -1400 nucleotides, contains at least three distinct cis-acting elements (C1R, C1L and E1) which are necessary for correct expression of fusion reporter genes in transgenic sea urchin embryos. The contribution of these elements in the temporal and spatial regulation of the gene was analyzed by single and double site-directed mutagenesis in fusion constructs which carry the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) gene as a reporter. Following microinjection of the transgenes in sea urchin embryos, the activity of the mutants was compared to the wild type in time and space by measuring CAT activity at the blastula and pluteus embryonic stages and by in situ hybridization to the CAT mRNA at pluteus stage. Our results indicate that E1 is involved in the temporal regulation of CyIIIb and that all three elements are necessary and sufficient to confer aboral (dorsal) ectoderm specificity to the proximal promoter. This is achieved by suppressing the promoter's activity in all other tissues by the cooperative interaction of the cis-acting elements. The C1R element, binding site of the nuclear receptors SpCOUP-TF and SpSHR2, is by itself sufficient to restrict expression in the ectoderm, whereas the aboral ectoderm restricted expression requires in addition the presence of both C1L and E1. It is therefore evident, that the actin CyIIIb gene is exclusively expressed in the aboral ectoderm by a combinatorial repression in all other cell lineages of the developing embryo.