Activity of the promoter of the hsp70 gene of the parasitic helminth Schistosoma mansoni in the mammalian CHO cell-line.

Functional assay of schistosome promoters is problematic because parasite cell-lines are not available. We found that the hsp70 promoters of S. mansoni and of other eukaryotes reveal similarities in the sequence and organization of the regulatory elements. Therefore, a construct of the schistosome hsp70 promoter linked to the CAT reporter gene was prepared and used to transfect CHO cells. The transfected cells showed heat shock dependent activation of CAT. These findings indicate that functional evaluation of schistosome promoters can be done, in part, in foster cell-lines.