Abstract
Chicken beta globin locus contains four genes, two of which, rho and epsilon, are expressed from the earliest stage of primitive hematopoiesis. Here we show that the transcription of these two genes in the nucleus engages in “on/off” phases. During each “on” phase, cotranscription of rho and epsilon in cis is favored. We propose that these two chicken beta globin genes are transcribed not by competing for a transcription initiation complex, but in a cooperative way.
Highlights
Studies of beta globin locus have been instrumental in understanding fundamental mechanisms of transcriptional regulation [1,2]
One unresolved question is whether transcription of two or more beta globin genes can occur simultaneously within a single locus
We interpreted them as representing nuclei with both loci off (2/2), one locus on (+/2) and both loci on (+/+), respectively, for a particular globin gene
Summary
Studies of beta globin locus have been instrumental in understanding fundamental mechanisms of transcriptional regulation [1,2]. One unresolved question is whether transcription of two or more beta globin genes can occur simultaneously within a single locus. Chicken beta globin locus, located near the distal tip of chromosome 1, contains four genes (rho, betaH, betaA and epsilon) (Fig. 1A) [3]. Chicken embryo establishes its circulation at around stage HH13, and primitive blood differentiation is initiated at HH7 with the expression of rho and epsilon genes [4]. By HH10, all blood cells are positive for both transcripts in their cytoplasm (Fig. 1B,C)
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