Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Clinical Investigation logoLink to The Journal of Clinical Investigation
. 1991 Jun;87(6):2142–2146. doi: 10.1172/JCI115246

The proximal element of the beta globin locus control region is not functionally required in vivo.

A E Kulozik 1, S Bail 1, A Bellan-Koch 1, C R Bartram 1, E Kohne 1, E Kleihauer 1
PMCID: PMC296972  PMID: 2040696

Abstract

In addition to local sequence elements the regulation of the high-level, development- and tissue-specific expression of the human beta globin gene cluster appears to require distant regulatory sequences which have been termed locus control region. In the chromatin of erythroid cells the locus control region is characterized by four DNaseI hypersensitive sites that are located 6-18 kb 5' of the epsilon globin gene. The definition of the sequences minimally required for locus control region activity is likely to further the understanding of its physiology and will be of interest for the development of somatic gene therapy strategies of the hemoglobinopathies. We present here the analysis of a family with a 3,030-bp deletion of sequences upstream of the epsilon globin gene including the most 3' locus control region element and cosegregating beta(0) thalassemia. The deletion is linked in cis to a structurally and functionally normal beta globin gene. The proximal element of the locus control region does not therefore appear to be necessary for beta globin gene activity in vivo.

Full text

PDF
2142

Images in this article

2143Image
on p.2143
2144Image
on p.2144
2144Image
on p.2144
2144Image
on p.2144
2145Image
on p.2145

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abraham E. C., Reese A., Stallings M., Huisman T. H. Separation of human hemoglobins by DEAE-cellulose chromatography using glycine-KCN-NaC1 developers. Hemoglobin. 1976;1(1):27–44. doi: 10.3109/03630267609031020. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BETKE K., MARTI H. R., SCHLICHT I. Estimation of small percentages of foetal haemoglobin. Nature. 1959 Dec 12;184(Suppl 24):1877–1878. doi: 10.1038/1841877a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Blom van Assendelft G., Hanscombe O., Grosveld F., Greaves D. R. The beta-globin dominant control region activates homologous and heterologous promoters in a tissue-specific manner. Cell. 1989 Mar 24;56(6):969–977. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90630-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chada K., Magram J., Costantini F. An embryonic pattern of expression of a human fetal globin gene in transgenic mice. Nature. 1986 Feb 20;319(6055):685–689. doi: 10.1038/319685a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chada K., Magram J., Raphael K., Radice G., Lacy E., Costantini F. Specific expression of a foreign beta-globin gene in erythroid cells of transgenic mice. 1985 Mar 28-Apr 3Nature. 314(6009):377–380. doi: 10.1038/314377a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chao M. V., Mellon P., Charnay P., Maniatis T., Axel R. The regulated expression of beta-globin genes introduced into mouse erythroleukemia cells. Cell. 1983 Feb;32(2):483–493. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90468-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Charnay P., Treisman R., Mellon P., Chao M., Axel R., Maniatis T. Differences in human alpha- and beta-globin gene expression in mouse erythroleukemia cells: the role of intragenic sequences. Cell. 1984 Aug;38(1):251–263. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90547-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Collis P., Antoniou M., Grosveld F. Definition of the minimal requirements within the human beta-globin gene and the dominant control region for high level expression. EMBO J. 1990 Jan;9(1):233–240. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb08100.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Curtin P. T., Kan Y. W. The inactive beta globin gene on a gamma delta beta thalassemia chromosome has a normal structure and functions normally in vitro. Blood. 1988 Mar;71(3):766–770. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Curtin P. T., Liu D. P., Liu W., Chang J. C., Kan Y. W. Human beta-globin gene expression in transgenic mice is enhanced by a distant DNase I hypersensitive site. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Sep;86(18):7082–7086. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.18.7082. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Driscoll M. C., Dobkin C. S., Alter B. P. Gamma delta beta-thalassemia due to a de novo mutation deleting the 5' beta-globin gene activation-region hypersensitive sites. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Oct;86(19):7470–7474. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.19.7470. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Dzierzak E. A., Papayannopoulou T., Mulligan R. C. Lineage-specific expression of a human beta-globin gene in murine bone marrow transplant recipients reconstituted with retrovirus-transduced stem cells. Nature. 1988 Jan 7;331(6151):35–41. doi: 10.1038/331035a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Forrester W. C., Takegawa S., Papayannopoulou T., Stamatoyannopoulos G., Groudine M. Evidence for a locus activation region: the formation of developmentally stable hypersensitive sites in globin-expressing hybrids. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Dec 23;15(24):10159–10177. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.24.10159. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Grosveld F., van Assendelft G. B., Greaves D. R., Kollias G. Position-independent, high-level expression of the human beta-globin gene in transgenic mice. Cell. 1987 Dec 24;51(6):975–985. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90584-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kollias G., Wrighton N., Hurst J., Grosveld F. Regulated expression of human A gamma-, beta-, and hybrid gamma beta-globin genes in transgenic mice: manipulation of the developmental expression patterns. Cell. 1986 Jul 4;46(1):89–94. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90862-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Kulozik A. E., Kar B. C., Satapathy R. K., Serjeant B. E., Serjeant G. R., Weatherall D. J. Fetal hemoglobin levels and beta (s) globin haplotypes in an Indian populations with sickle cell disease. Blood. 1987 Jun;69(6):1742–1746. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Labie D., Pagnier J., Lapoumeroulie C., Rouabhi F., Dunda-Belkhodja O., Chardin P., Beldjord C., Wajcman H., Fabry M. E., Nagel R. L. Common haplotype dependency of high G gamma-globin gene expression and high Hb F levels in beta-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia patients. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Apr;82(7):2111–2114. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.7.2111. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Li Q., Powers P. A., Smithies O. Nucleotide sequence of 16-kilobase pairs of DNA 5' to the human epsilon-globin gene. J Biol Chem. 1985 Dec 5;260(28):14901–14910. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Magram J., Chada K., Costantini F. Developmental regulation of a cloned adult beta-globin gene in transgenic mice. Nature. 1985 May 23;315(6017):338–340. doi: 10.1038/315338a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Orkin S. H., Kazazian H. H., Jr, Antonarakis S. E., Goff S. C., Boehm C. D., Sexton J. P., Waber P. G., Giardina P. J. Linkage of beta-thalassaemia mutations and beta-globin gene polymorphisms with DNA polymorphisms in human beta-globin gene cluster. Nature. 1982 Apr 15;296(5858):627–631. doi: 10.1038/296627a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Ryan T. M., Behringer R. R., Martin N. C., Townes T. M., Palmiter R. D., Brinster R. L. A single erythroid-specific DNase I super-hypersensitive site activates high levels of human beta-globin gene expression in transgenic mice. Genes Dev. 1989 Mar;3(3):314–323. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.3.314. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Ryan T. M., Behringer R. R., Townes T. M., Palmiter R. D., Brinster R. L. High-level erythroid expression of human alpha-globin genes in transgenic mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Jan;86(1):37–41. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.1.37. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Sorrentino B., Ney P., Bodine D., Nienhius A. W. A 46 base pair enhancer sequence within the locus activating region is required for induced expression of the gamma-globin gene during erythroid differentiation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 May 11;18(9):2721–2731. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.9.2721. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Talbot D., Collis P., Antoniou M., Vidal M., Grosveld F., Greaves D. R. A dominant control region from the human beta-globin locus conferring integration site-independent gene expression. Nature. 1989 Mar 23;338(6213):352–355. doi: 10.1038/338352a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Talbot D., Philipsen S., Fraser P., Grosveld F. Detailed analysis of the site 3 region of the human beta-globin dominant control region. EMBO J. 1990 Jul;9(7):2169–2177. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb07386.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Taramelli R., Kioussis D., Vanin E., Bartram K., Groffen J., Hurst J., Grosveld F. G. Gamma delta beta-thalassaemias 1 and 2 are the result of a 100 kbp deletion in the human beta-globin cluster. Nucleic Acids Res. 1986 Sep 11;14(17):7017–7029. doi: 10.1093/nar/14.17.7017. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Thein S. L., Wainscoat J. S., Sampietro M., Old J. M., Cappellini D., Fiorelli G., Modell B., Weatherall D. J. Association of thalassaemia intermedia with a beta-globin gene haplotype. Br J Haematol. 1987 Mar;65(3):367–373. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2141.1987.tb06870.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Townes T. M., Lingrel J. B., Chen H. Y., Brinster R. L., Palmiter R. D. Erythroid-specific expression of human beta-globin genes in transgenic mice. EMBO J. 1985 Jul;4(7):1715–1723. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03841.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Tsai S. F., Martin D. I., Zon L. I., D'Andrea A. D., Wong G. G., Orkin S. H. Cloning of cDNA for the major DNA-binding protein of the erythroid lineage through expression in mammalian cells. Nature. 1989 Jun 8;339(6224):446–451. doi: 10.1038/339446a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Tuan D., Abeliovich A., Lee-Oldham M., Lee D. Identification of regulatory elements of human beta-like globin genes. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1987;251:211–220. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Tuan D., Solomon W., Li Q., London I. M. The "beta-like-globin" gene domain in human erythroid cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Oct;82(19):6384–6388. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.19.6384. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Van der Ploeg L. H., Konings A., Oort M., Roos D., Bernini L., Flavell R. A. gamma-beta-Thalassaemia studies showing that deletion of the gamma- and delta-genes influences beta-globin gene expression in man. Nature. 1980 Feb 14;283(5748):637–642. doi: 10.1038/283637a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Vanin E. F., Henthorn P. S., Kioussis D., Grosveld F., Smithies O. Unexpected relationships between four large deletions in the human beta-globin gene cluster. Cell. 1983 Dec;35(3 Pt 2):701–709. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90103-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Wood W. I., Gitschier J., Lasky L. A., Lawn R. M. Base composition-independent hybridization in tetramethylammonium chloride: a method for oligonucleotide screening of highly complex gene libraries. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Mar;82(6):1585–1588. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.6.1585. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Wright S., Rosenthal A., Flavell R., Grosveld F. DNA sequences required for regulated expression of beta-globin genes in murine erythroleukemia cells. Cell. 1984 Aug;38(1):265–273. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90548-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Wright S., deBoer E., Grosveld F. G., Flavell R. A. Regulated expression of the human beta-globin gene family in murine erythroleukaemia cells. Nature. 1983 Sep 22;305(5932):333–336. doi: 10.1038/305333a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Investigation are provided here courtesy of American Society for Clinical Investigation

RESOURCES