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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Quantifying the Activity of cis-Regulatory Elements in the Mouse Retina by Explant Electroporation
Published on: June 28, 2011
Conserved cis-elements in the Xenopus red opsin promoter necessary for cone-specific expression
S Babu1, V McIlvain, S L Whitaker
1Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Ophthalmology, 750 E. Adams Street, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
Abstract:
The long-wavelength sensitive (red) opsin genes encode proteins which play a central role in daytime and color vision in vertebrates. We used transgenic Xenopus to identify 5' cis-elements in the red cone opsin promoter necessary for cone-specific expression. We found a highly conserved extended region (-725 to -173) that was required for restricting GFP transgene expression to cones. We further identified a short element (5'-CCAATTAAGAGAT-3') highly conserved amongst tetrapods, including humans, necessary to restrict expression to cones in the retina. These results identify novel conserved elements that regulate spatial expression of tetrapod red cone opsin genes.
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