β-Thalassemia point mutations downstream of the transcriptional start site decrease transcription from the human β-globin promoter in vitro. Lanes 1–7 are primer extension assays of in vitro transcriptions using various β-globin promoter templates. The mutations are indicated above each lane. The templates in lanes 1 and 2, 3–5, and 6 and 7 are based on three wild-type promoter templates, βGH, βWT, and βEXT, extending to +18, +35, and +45, respectively.