A Differential Hybridization Scheme to Identify Photoreceptor-Specific Genes
- Deborah A. Swanson1,
- Carol L. Freund1,
- Jason M. Steel2,
- Shunbin Xu1,
- Lynda Ploder3,4,
- Roderick R. McInnes3,4, and
- David Valle2,5
- 1Predoctoral Training Program in Human Genetics and 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, and 3Program in Developmental Biology and 4Department of Genetics, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X8
Abstract
Identification of genes expressed preferentially or exclusively in photoreceptors will facilitate the understanding of photoreceptor biology as well as provide candidate genes for inherited retinal degenerations. To achieve this goal we performed a differential hybridization screen of 3717 well-isolated phage clones from a human retinal cDNA library. Clones were selected for further study if they hybridized exclusively or strongly preferentially to a probe derived from RNA isolated from the cone-predominant retina of 13-line ground squirrels as compared to a probe derived from human fibroblast RNA. Twenty percent of clones (9/45) identified by this screen were derived from photoreceptor-specific genes and an additional 24.4% (11/45) were from neural-specific genes, demonstrating the utility of this strategy in identifying genes important for retinal biology.
[The sequence tags of cDNAs identified in this screen have been deposited in GenBank under accession nos. U89715, U89878–U89888, andU89951–U89955.]
Footnotes
-
↵5 Corresponding author.
-
E-MAIL david.valle{at}qmail.bs.jhu.edu; FAX (410) 9557397.
-
- Received January 2, 1997.
- Accepted February 24, 1997.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
