Pou domain proteins are DNA binding proteins that control the transcription of other genes. Their control has been found to be important in the development of numerous systems including the anterior pituitary and the epidermis in mammals and in neuron cell identity in C. elegans. We have identified a fragment of a pou gene by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using reverse transcription of RNA from embryonic chicken heart and degenerate primers based on a Drosophila pou amino acid sequence. The sequence analysis of the chicken pou fragment shows it to be clearly related to other pou genes previously identified, but to be divergent enough to suggest a novel class of pou genes. The goal of this project is to obtain the entire sequence of this chicken pou gene, to confirm that it is expressed in embryonic heart and to explore its role in development. By better understanding the genes that are restricted to embryonic expression, we may uncover clues to the genetic control of cardiac development.
