Fine analysis of the active H5 gene chromatin of chicken erythroid cells at different stages of differentiation

Abstract

We have analyzed the chromatin structure of a region that encompasses 14.4 × 10 3 basepairs of the chicken histone H5 locus in adult erythroid cells at different stages of maturation. Seven of eight major lineage-specific DNase I-hypersensitive sites, some of which show complex substructure, were found in the flanking regions of the gene. The hypersensitivity of some of these sites is modulated during erythrocyte maturation in a way that parallels the transcriptional activity of the gene. DNase I, micrococcal nuclease, and S 1 nuclease recognize the same regions, which differ from those cleaved by S 1 on supercoiled plasmid DNA. This suggests that hypersensitivity of DNA in chromatin reflects a greater accessibility of the DNA rather than its altered conformation. The DNA sequence of some of the DNase I target sites contains repeated motifs, (T-C-C-C) 2, (T-C-C) 2, (T-G-G-G-G) 2, which are found in the hypersensitive sites of other genes. Detailed analysis across sections of the H5 gene and flanking sequences revealed differences in the DNase I sensitivity of the different regions examined. Notably, the first one-third of the gene is more sensitive than the rest. The sequences downstream from the region where most RNA polymerases terminate transcription were found to be the most resistant.