Position independence and proper developmental control of gamma-globin gene expression require both a 5' locus control region and a downstream sequence element.

Abstract

We have analyzed the expression of human gamma-globin genes during development in F2 progeny of transgenic mice carrying two types of constructs. In the first type, gamma-globin genes were linked individually to large (approximately 4-kb) sequence fragments spanning locus control region (LCR) hypersensitive site 2 (HS2) or HS3. These LCR fragments contained not only the core HS elements but also extensive evolutionarily conserved flanking sequences. The second type of construct contained tandem gamma- and beta-globin genes linked to identical HS2 or HS3 fragments. We show that gamma-globin expression in transgenic mice carrying HS2 gamma or HS3 gamma constructs is highly sensitive to position effects and that such effects override the cis regulatory elements present in these constructs to produce markedly different developmental patterns of gamma-globin expression in lines carrying the same transgene. In contrast, gamma-globin expression in both HS2 gamma beta and HS3 gamma beta mice is sheltered from position effects and the developmental patterns of gamma-globin expression in lines carrying the same transgene are identical and display stage-specific regulation. The results suggest that cis regulatory sequences required for proper developmental control of fetal globin expression in the presence of an LCR element reside downstream from the gamma genes.