Transformation of frog embryos with a rabbit beta-globin gene

In order to study the fate and possible expression of foreign DNA during embryogenesis of the frog Xenopus laevis, we have injected a rabbit beta-globin gene into fertilized Xenopus eggs. Frog embryo DNA was extracted at various stages of development, fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis, transferred to nitrocellulose filters, and hybridized to labeled beta-globin recombinant plasmid DNA. It was found that the injected DNA replicated extrachromosomally, reaching, at gastrula stage, a level equivalent to a 10- to 200-fold amplification of input DNA. At later stages, a majority of the foreign DNA was degraded, but a small fraction was maintained. Six-week-old tadpoles as well as six-month-old frogs contained an average of 3-10 copies of the rabbit globin gene per cell. Most of these persisting globin genes were present as long tandem repeats and comigrated in agarose gel electrophoresis with high molecular weight Xenopus DNA. Analysis of globin gene expression by S1 nuclease mapping showed that the rabbit beta-globin promoter was recognized in the frog embryo and that the transcripts were correctly spliced.