Abstract
This article demonstrates that the chicken glutamine synthetase (GS) promoter contains cis-acting elements that direct transcription to retinal Müller glial cells. The transient assay system developed to identify these elements involved electroporation of intact retinal tissue with GS-β-galactosidase fusion genes followed by preparation of primary cultures and histochemical assay of cells expressing β-galactosidase. Plasmids containing β-galactosidase under transcriptional control by two different viral promoters are expressed primarily in neuronal cells after transfection of intact embryonic d 12 retina. In sharp contrast, expression is primarily in Müller glia after transfection with a GS-β-galactosidase fusion gene. Although GS is glucocorticoid inducible, steroid hormone is not required to achieve Müller cell-selective expression of the GS-β-galactosidase fusion gene. Deletion studies indicate that multiple cis-acting elements located between nucleotides −436 and −61 relative to the GS transcription start site contribute to produce Müller cell selectivity. Moreover, these upstream elements enhance expression of a heterologous promoter in Müller cells but not neurons. These results indicate that an enhancer located between 61 and 436 nucleotides upstream of the transcription start site contributes to Müller cell-selective expression of the GS gene in the retina.
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Li, YC., Beard, D., Hayes, S. et al. A transcriptional enhancer of the glutamine synthetase gene that is selective for retinal Müller glial cells. J Mol Neurosci 6, 169–183 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02736763
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02736763