ABSTRACT
A major feature of skeletogenesis in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is the coordinate appearance of most of the major proteins that are diagnostic of differentiated skeleton. This switch in protein synthesis coincides with the coordinate appearance and accumulation of several skeleton-specific polysomal transcripts, indicating that it is regulated largely at the level of mRNA accumulation, most likely at the level of transcription. Comparison of the 5’flanking regions of two of the coordinated genes reveals three common sequence elements arranged in the same order and orientation with respect to the putative transcription start sites of the two genes. These elements fall within a 450 bp region that has been demonstrated to contain all the required information for normal temporal and spatial regulation of these, and perhaps other, skeletal genes.
