A 3.6-kb fragment of the mouse smooth muscle alpha actin gene (SMP8) containing 1074 bp of the upstream (promoter) region, the 63 bp exon 1 (5' UTR), the 2.5 kb first intron, and 15 bp of exon 2 (5' UTR), was used to drive the expression of the mCherry red fluorescent protein. SV40 poly(A) signal sequences (240 bp) were placed downstream of the cDNA. (J:138620)