A heat-shock-inducible eukaryotic expression vector.

We describe a construct, pHS/Cla, containing the Drosophila melanogaster hsp70 promoter which serves as an inducible expression vector in mammalian cells. The construct was made in the plasmid pAT153, a derivative of pBR322. In transient transfections of human H9 T-cells, the transactivator of transcription protein of the human AIDS virus HIV-1 was functionally expressed in response to heat shock. The promoter is very tightly regulated in that no expression can be detected at 37 degrees C. Expression is highly induced upon heat shock and lasts at least 4 h. The construct contains a unique ClaI site for cloning and expressing potentially any gene.