XLPOU-60, a Xenopus POU-domain mRNA, is oocyte-specific from very early stages of oogenesis, and localised to presumptive mesoderm and ectoderm in the blastula.

POU-domain proteins are a large family of transcriptional regulatory proteins, related to the homeodomain proteins, many of which are implicated in the control of gene expression during early development. We describe here the isolation of a cDNA encoding a Xenopus POU-domain protein, XLPOU-60. The predicted protein sequence of this cDNA is most closely related to the mouse germ line-specific transcription factor Oct-3/4. The XLPOU-60 gene is specifically expressed in oocytes of newly metamorphosed frogs, from the earliest stages at which transcription is known to occur. The mRNA is concentrated in the animal half of fully grown oocytes and is inherited maternally by the embryo, where it remains localised to animal cap and marginal zone cells of the blastula. Transcripts decline abruptly to a low level during gastrulation, but remain detectable throughout larval stages. However, unlike Oct-3/4, the transcript is not detectable in primordial germ cells, and XLPOU-60 is therefore probably not the functional homologue of the murine gene. We suggest that XLPOU-60 is one of the earliest genes to be transcribed in oocyte development, and that the XLPOU-60 protein may therefore be involved in initiating oocyte-specific patterns of transcription. Localisation of the transcript in the embryo may indicate that XLPOU-60 is also required for the initiation of mesoderm- and ectoderm-specific patterns of transcription in the embryo.