The binding ability of leaf nuclear extracts to the lighbresponsive elements (LREs) of cab promoters of Arabidopsis thaliana has been investigated. The cab promoters were fragmented with restr ction endonucleases into LRE that were identified by Mitra et al. [Plant Mol. Biol. 12, 169179 ( 1989)] and other small fragments. After end labeling with Klenow fragment, the fragments were assayed for binding with the leaf nuclear proteins that were prepared by solubilizing the purified nuclei with 0.5 M ammonium sulfate. The binding ability was assayed by mobility shift assay. To perform successful mobility shift assay, several factors affecting the interaction of protein with DNA were optimized before performing the assay. The LREs had several retardation bands. However, the other promoter fragments from the transcription start site to the far upstream region of the promoters had also retardation bands. No particular relationships could be found between the retardation band distributions and the loci of LRE. It is likely that the light-regulation of cab gene expression may be controlled by the multiple interactions of the regulatory protein factors with DNA motifs.