Widespread gpa-4 promoter-driven expression during Caenorhabditis elegans development.

Abstract

The gpa-4 promoter-driven expression is described as specific for ASIL and ASIR chemosensory neurons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, yet this was mostly examined in adult animals. Here we used a recombination-mediated reporter to test the previously used gpa-4 promoter expression. This reporter highlights all cells in which the gpa-4 promoter has been active at one point or another during development. We show that the gpa-4 promoter is indeed active in ASI, yet to our surprise, thispromoter drives also expression in many other cell types, including the somatic gonad, the seam cells, a subset of tail and head neurons, and muscle cells, demonstrating a widespread activity of this transgenic gpa-4 promoter during embryonic and post-embryonic development.