Fig. 2

Elements amplified from human (hs) and zebrafish (dr) sequences within SLIT3/slit3 had specific enhancer activity that drove expression in a miR218-2 like pattern in brainstem- and spinal cord motor neurons. (a) Modified UCSC genome browser window showing the human miR218-2/SLIT3 locus. SLIT3 as well as the miRNA 218-2 are located in reverse orientation in the genome sequence. The 32 end of SLIT3 is to the left. miR-218-2 is located in the intron 14 of SLIT3. Two noncoding sequences conserved between human and zebrafish genomes were identified as enhancers of miR218-2. While hs2 drove GFP in most or allof the neuronal expression domain of miR218, hs1-driven GFP was seen only in spinal cord motor neurons. (b) In zebrafish the slit3 gene is much smaller than in the human genome. Two sequences that show conservation between human and zebrafish have enhancer activity in a pattern very similar to the enhancers identified in human SLIT3. Abbreviations: DHS, DNase 1 hypersensitive sites; TFB, transcription factor binding identified by ChIP seq – both tracks are provided by ENCODE.