Identification of a retina-specific footprint within the retina-specific regulatory region of the human interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein gene.

Regulation of the retina-specific expression of the interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) gene in transgenic mice requires sequences between nucleotide (nt) -156 and +19. DNAse I footprinting and electrophoretic mobility shift assays identified a region between nt -69 and -40 that interacts with some nuclear proteins from bovine and mouse retinas but not from a variety of other neural and non-neural tissues. The selectivity of this sequence to elicit IRBP promoter activity is indicated by their failure to bind some nuclear proteins following mutagenesis. Therefore, IRBP promoter activity is linked to nuclear protein binding at a regulatory motif between nt-69 and -40.