title: Purkinje cell protein-2 regulatory regions and transgene expression in cerebellar compartments.
abstract: The Purkinje cell protein 2 (Pcp-2) is expressed in cerebellar Purkinje cells and retinal bipolar neurons. To illuminate how Pcp-2 expression is restricted to only two neuronal types and to derive tools to express heterologous genes in these neuronal subpopulations, genomic sequences of the mouse Pcp-2 gene have been cloned and flanking sequences have been evaluated as a source of neuron-specific regulatory elements. An upstream region with homology to other genes expressed in neurons was identified and a hybrid gene containing this sequence was constructed by ligating 0.4 kb of upstream and 0.3 kb of downstream Pcp-2-flanking DNA to lacZ. Transgenic mice bearing this construct exhibited beta-galactosidase in a wide array of neuron types, suggesting that this sequence may play an important role in specifying neuronal expression. Addition of a further 3.1 kb of Pcp-2 upstream sequences restricted expression of beta-galactosidase to a small number of neuron types and most notably to Purkinje cells within parasagitally oriented cerebellar compartments. The presence of elements lying within the 3.1-kb upstream region and acting to specifically restrict Pcp-2 expression is therefore suggested. Moreover, as beta-galactosidase was not expressed in the bipolar cells of these transgenic mice, retinal expression of the endogenous Pcp-2 gene must involve elements in addition to those conferring expression within Purkinje cells.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vandaele
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Nordquist
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Feddersen
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tretjakoff
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Orr
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002451:Cell Compartmentation / Q000235:genetics*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007763:Lac Operon; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000235:genetics*; D011689:Purkinje Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D009479:Neuropeptides