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Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Prediction and Validation of Gene Regulatory Elements Activated During Retinoic Acid Induced Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation
Published on: June 21, 2016
Autoregulation of retinal homeobox (rax) gene promoter activity through a highly conserved genomic element
Lisa E Kelly1, Reyna I Martinez-De Luna2, Heithem M El-Hodiri1,2,3
1Center for Molecular and Human Genetics, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Abstract:
The Retinal homeobox (rax) gene is expressed in vertebrate retinal progenitor and stem cells and is essential for retinal development. In frogs, rax is expressed in the ciliary marginal zone (CMZ), a region containing retinal progenitor and stem cells at the anterior of the eye. Little is known regarding regulation of rax transcription and regulation of transcription of rax targets. We found that three ultra-conserved genomic elements (UCEs) flanking the rax coding region regulate expression of a rax promoter-GFP transgene in Xenopus tadpoles. One of these elements, UCE1, regulates expression of the transgene in the dorsal CMZ. UCE1 contains a Rax binding site, PCE-1. We demonstrate that rax regulates expression of the transgene through the PCE-1 site found in UCE1. Therefore, rax transcription in the CMZ is controlled, in part, by autoregulatory mechanisms.
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