A 5′ element of the chicken β-globin domain serves as an insulator in human erythroid cells and protects against position effect in Drosophila
Abstract
We have characterized an element near the 5' boundary of the chicken beta-globin domain that insulates a reporter gene from the activating effects of a nearby beta-globin locus control region (5'HS2) when assayed in the human erythroid cell line K562. We show that the insulation mechanism is directional, that it operates at the level of transcription, and that it involves the alteration of chromatin structure over the promoter of the gene. The insulator has no significant stimulatory or inhibitory effects of its own. In transgenic Drosophila, the insulator protects the white minigene from position effects. The action of the insulator thus is not restricted to erythroid or mammalian cells, suggesting that such elements may serve an important and widely distributed function in the organization of chromatin structure.
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Insulators are regulatory elements that can block the ability of an enhancer to activate a gene when located between them.
“Another potential solution to the enhancer-gene specificity conundrum lies in insulators, which are regulatory elements that can block the ability of an enhancer to activate a gene when located between them (Chung et al., 1993; Geyer and Corces, 1992; Kellum and Schedl, 1991; Udvardy et al., 1985).”
From Insulated Neighborhoods: Structural and Functional Units of Mammalian Gene Control (2016) · cites this paper as Chung et al., 1993
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- Authors
- Chung, J. H., Whiteley, M., & Felsenfeld, G.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- United States Food and Drug Administration (US)
- Venue
- Cell
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1993-08
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 505-514
- ISSN
- 0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2040029402
- Cited by
- 854
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 41
- FWCI
- 11.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cell (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Chromatin Remodeling and Cancer
- Keywords
- insulator elements, locus control region, position effect, chromatin structure
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cell Line, Cell Nucleus, Chickens, Chromatin, Chromosome Mapping, Drosophila, Gene Expression Regulation, Globins, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Humans, Nucleosomes, Plasmids, Promoter Regions, Genetic, RNA, Messenger, Transfection, Tumor Cells, Cultured, Restriction Mapping, Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive, Animals, Genetically Modified
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