Chromosome 4 Open Reading Frame 11 (C4orf11)

Retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are of neuroectodermal origin with highly specialized functions in light perception. Only 27 genes were in common between the two cDNA libraries. One transcript expressed exclusively in retina and RPE is the novel gene C4orf11 which is comprised of four exons on chromosome 4q21.2. C4orf11, 919 bp and 857 bp in length, both of which contain four identical open reading frames (ORFs). While ORFs 1 to 3 show no homologies to known proteins or protein domains, ORF4 reveals 50% sequence identity to RPE-spondin, a hypothetical protein on 8q13.3 with unknown function. In combination with other approaches such as microarray analysis or serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), the availability of highly sensitive and specific SSH cDNA libraries will facilitate the comprehensive description of the retina/RPE transcriptome.