Bioinformatic analyses uncover conserved transcription factor binding sites within the minimal Bmp-responsive Hand1 cis-regulatory element. Local alignments of the evolutionarily conserved regions syntenic to the minimal BMP-responsive element among mammalian species, using the CLUSTALW multiple sequence alignment program, uncovered conserved SMAD (green), DLX (yellow), E-box/D-box (turquoise and dark red, respectively) and GATA (purple) binding sites.