A DIFFERENTIAL HYBRIDIZATION SCHEME TO IDENTIFY PHOTORECEPTOR-SPECIFIC GENES

Identification of genes expressed preferentially or exclusively in pho toreceptors will facilitate the understanding of photoreceptor biology as well as provide candidate genes For inherited retinal degeneration s. To achieve this goal we performed a differential hybridization scre en of 3717 well-isolated phage clones from a human retinal cDNA librar y. Clones were selected for further study if they hybridized exclusive ly or strongly preferentially to a probe derived from RNA isolated Fro m 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-spec ific genes and an additional 24.4% (11/45) were from neural-specific g enes,demonstrating the utility of this strategy in identifying genes i mportant for retinal biology.