Open AccessThe promoter and enhancer of the inactive chicken β-globin gene contains precisely positioned nucleosomes
Author(s) -
Robin Buckle,
Michael Balmer,
Ali Fazıl Yenidünya,
James Allan
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
nucleic acids research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 9.008
H-Index - 537
eISSN - 1362-4954
pISSN - 0305-1048
DOI - 10.1093/nar/19.6.1219
Subject(s) - biology , enhancer , nucleosome , microbiology and biotechnology , globin , gene , transfection , histone , promoter , transcription (linguistics) , dna , gene expression , genetics , linguistics , philosophy
Core histone octamers reconstituted in vitro onto DNA fragments containing the chicken beta-globin gene promoter are precisely positioned with respect to the underlying DNA sequence [1]. Here we show that this is also true of the chicken beta-globin gene enhancer. These nucleosome binding sites are also employed within transfected COS cell nuclei, where the chicken beta-globin gene is transcriptionally inactive. Similar results were found in vivo, where positioned nucleosomes were detected over the inactive beta-globin promoter in chicken brain cells and 5-day red blood cells, and over the inactive beta-globin enhancer in brain cells. In contrast, the promoter and enhancer regions were found to be nucleosome-free in 15-day erythrocytes where the beta-globin gene is active. We argue that these results suggest a role for positioned nucleosomes in the regulation of the transcription of the chicken beta-globin gene.