A transient transfection assay has been developed to analyse promoter activity in neuronal cells freshly dissociated from the chick central nervous system. The assay enabled us to identify cis-acting regulatory elements within the 5'-flanking region of the alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor gene. In differentiated retina, regulatory elements direct reporter gene expression to a small subset of neurons which has been identified as ganglion cells, i.e. to the population of neurons in which alpha 7 transcripts were localized by in situ hybridization. However, these promoter elements exhibit ubiquitous activity in undifferentiated neural cells and in mesodermal stem cells. Our study supports the idea that alpha 7 regulatory elements acquire their neuronal specificity in the course of embryogenesis.