Functional analysis of the promoter of a sea urchin metallothionein gene.  The 5''-flanking region of the metallothionein (MT) gene LpMT1 of the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus includes three copies of a conserved sequence that includes the metal-responsive element (MRE) consensus core sequence required for heavy metal induction of other MT genes, a GC box, a G box of a putative basal level enhancer element which includes another MRE core element, and a poly(C) tract. A fragment of LpMT1 DNA from nucleotides +31 to -309 fused to a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene was inducible with cadmium after injection into L. pictus embryos. This induced activity was greatly reduced in a deletion mutant which retained only 195 base pairs of 5''-flanking sequence, including the proximal pair of MREs and the G box, but excluding the poly(C) tract, GC box, and distal MRE. A potent human hMT-IIA gene promoter is marginally functional in L. pictus embryos. In contrast, the LpMT1 promoter is active in HeLa cells and in embryos of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. The hMT-IIA gene may lack a cis-acting sequence element required for expression of MT genes in L. pictus embryos. The LpMT1 promoter is a powerful, inducible, promiscuous promoter useful for driving the expression of heterologous genes in sea urchin embryos.