The present invention provides an isolated, purified and characterized human tyrosine hydroxylase (hTH) promoter nucleic acid sequence. The invention further provides a method of selecting TH positive (TH+) cells by preparing a construct comprising a hTH promoter operably linked to a heterologous nucleic acid sequence, for example, green fluorescent protein encoding sequence, and transfecting cells, particularly stem cells, with the construct. The invention also provides a hTH promoter, useful in gene therapeutic applications in driving therapeutic genes or other nucleic acid sequences operably linked to the hTH promoter. Additionally, the invention provides cell lines and transgenic animals expressing a transgene comprising the hTH promoter operably linked to a heterologous sequence, which cell lines and transgenic animals are useful for isolating TH+ cells for transplantation or for screening of therapeutic agents that affect TH+ function. Methods of producing cell lines and transgenic animals also provided.