Figure 4. Northern blot analyses of GC1, GCAP1, and GCAP2 transcripts in normal and rd/rd retina and pineal

Each of the four lanes shown contains 10 µg of total RNA that was isolated from the retina-pigment epithelium-choroid or pineal of 1 to 3 day old normal or rd/rd chickens. The blot shown was hybridized sequentially with probes for chicken GC1, GCAP1, GCAP2 and 18S rRNA. The hybridization signals shown for GC1, GCAP1 and GCAP2 were obtained following 24 h exposure of Kodak BioMax film at -70 °C. The signal for 18S rRNA was obtained after a 20 min exposure at room temperature. Longer exposures of the GCAP2 blots (72 h exposure at -70 °C) did not produce detectable GCAP2 signals. The normal GC1 transcript is approximately 9.5 kb in size. The GCAP1 and GCAP2 transcripts are approximately 2.4 and 2.6 kb in size, respectively.