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Neuronal specificity of the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor promoter develops during morphogenesis of the central nervous system.
Author(s) -
MatterSadzinski L.,
Hernandez M.C.,
Roztocil T.,
Ballivet M.,
Matter J.M.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05554.x
Subject(s) - biology , nicotinic acetylcholine receptor , morphogenesis , acetylcholine receptor , central nervous system , nicotinic agonist , neuroscience , acetylcholine , alpha (finance) , nervous system , receptor , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , pharmacology , gene , medicine , construct validity , nursing , patient satisfaction
A transient transfection assay has been developed to analyse promoter activity in neuronal cells freshly dissociated from the chick central nervous system. The assay enabled us to identify cis‐acting regulatory elements within the 5′‐flanking region of the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene. In differentiated retina, regulatory elements direct reporter gene expression to a small subset of neurons which has been identified as ganglion cells, i.e. to the population of neurons in which alpha 7 transcripts were localized by in situ hybridization. However, these promoter elements exhibit ubiquitous activity in undifferentiated neural cells and in mesodermal stem cells. Our study supports the idea that alpha 7 regulatory elements acquire their neuronal specificity in the course of embryogenesis.