An evolutionarily conserved noncoding sequence resides in the upstream region of the HRC gene. (A) Schematic representation of the human HRC upstream region. The HRC upstream region (−2609 to +117) was cloned as a BamHI-Psp1406I fragment into CAT and β-galactosidase reporter plasmids such that transcription would start from the HRC transcriptional start site (red arrow) and translation would initiate in the reporter cDNA. Green box, evolutionarily conserved region; black arrow, HRC translational start site; B, BamHI; N, NcoI; Bg, BglII; P, Psp1406I. (B) Sequence alignment of the evolutionarily conserved element from the HRC upstream region from −608 to −468, relative to the transcriptional start site, in the human sequence. The box denotes the evolutionarily conserved MEF2 site.