Ferritin Heavy Chain, a Repressor of the Human β-Globin Gene That Binds a Conserved Cagtgc Motif, Is Bound to the Repressed β-Globin Promoter In Vivo in K562 Cells and Specifically Binds an Analogous Site in the Mouse βMajor-Globin Promoter.

Abstract

Ferritin heavy chain (FH), an embryonically-expressed protein in the erythroid lineage, localizes to the nucleus and represses the human adult β-globin promoter in transient expression assays (Broyles et al., PNAS 98: 9145, 2001). Recently, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays with cross-linked chromatin of K562 cells in which the β-globin gene is repressed, using anti-FH polyclonal antisera. These results strongly indicate that FH occupies the repression site (a CAGTGC motif) in vivo. Binding to this -150 site has been previously demonstrated to be required for β-promoter repression in co-transfections. EMSA assays (competitive gel shifts) have revealed that the mouse βMajor-globin promoter has an analogous CAGTGN motif at -160 bp from the cap site that competes specifically with the human CAGTGC site for FH binding. The mouse βMinor-globin promoter lacks the -150/-160 CAGTGN motif and, therefore, the FH binding site. Thus, a human FH transgenic mouse, in which the FH gene is driven by a truncated β-promoter lacking the CAGTGN motif, should express human FH in definitive erythroid cells where the FH would be predicted to repress βMajor-globin but not βMinor-globin. Such a mouse would be predicted to survive but be born with a mild β-thalassemia due to the decreased βMajor/βMinor ratio in its definitive erythroid cells. Preliminary results from the litters of F1 generation FH-tg mice indicate that such is indeed the case, i.e., that human FH functions as a βMajor-globin repressor in vivo.