Regulation of delta-crystallin expression: an investigation by transfer of the chicken gene into mouse cells.
In order to understand how crystallin genes are regulated so that they would be expressed with a high lens specificity, we introduced a cloned delta-crystallin gene of the chicken and its derivatives into various mouse cells. In such a heterologous combination of the gene and the recipient cells, chicken delta-crystallin was expressed in lens cells with a high preference over other cell types. The high expression in the lens is basically ascribed to interactions between the putative lens-specific mechanisms for transcription and the base pairs from -80 to +35 encompassing the transcriptional initiation site of the delta-crystallin gene. A non-specific low expression was also observed. This may account for ectopic delta-crystallin expression which takes place in certain non-lenticular embryonic tissues of the chicken.
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002645:Chickens; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003459:Crystallins / Q000235:genetics*; D005796:Genes; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000166:cytology; D051379:Mice; D010802:Phylogeny; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D003459:Crystallins