The 5' flanking regions of IRBP and arrestin have promoter activity in primary embryonic chicken retina cell cultures.

Primary cultures of embryonic chicken cells from various tissues were transiently transfected with plasmid vectors containing reporter genes linked to a 1.8 kb fragment of the mouse interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) 5' flanking region, a 1.5 kb fragment of the mouse arrestin 5' flanking region, or a 3.4 kb sequence of the bovine arrestin 5' flanking region. Promoter activity was evident in retina-derived cells, but not in fibroblasts or cells from whole brain. Transfection response also varied with transfection method, plasmid DNA concentration, post-transfection incubation time, and cell density. The data suggest that the primary embryonic chicken retinal cell culture system is a useful tool in studying photoreceptor-specific gene regulation.