Mouse cone arrestin gene characterization: promoter targets expression to cone photoreceptors.
Cone arrestin (CAR) is a novel member of the arrestin superfamily expressed in retinal cone photoreceptors and the pineal gland. To understand the regulatory mechanisms controlling its cone- and pineal-specific expression, and to facilitate further functional studies using gene knockout approaches, we characterized the genomic organization and the 5'-flanking region of the mouse CAR (mCAR) gene. The mCAR gene is comprised of 17 exons and 16 introns, encoding five alternatively spliced transcripts. A 215-bp proximal promoter fragment containing a TATA box, an Sp1 site and four cone-rod homeobox-binding sites is sufficient to direct expression in cultured retinoblastoma cells and in cone photoreceptors and the pineal gland in transgenic Xenopus laevis.
The Mary D. Allen Laboratory for Vision Research, Doheny Eye Institute, Department of Cell and Neurobiology, The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9112, USA.
Xuemei
X
Zhu
Bo
B
Ma
Sudha
S
Babu
Jaji
J
Murage
Barry E
BE
Knox
Cheryl M
CM
Craft
D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D019393:Arrestin / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005091:Exons; D007438:Introns; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014982:Xenopus laevis
D019393:Arrestin; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004247:DNA