Impaired interaction of alpha-haemoglobin-stabilising protein with alpha-globin termination mutant in a yeast two-hybrid system.

Alpha-thalassaemia caused by alpha-globin gene termination codon mutations (alphaT-globin) has been explained by their inherent mRNA instability and by oxidative damage arising from the presence of membrane-bound alphaT-globin chains. To better understand the latter phenomenon, a yeast two-hybrid system was used to assay the interaction between alphaT-globin and its molecular chaperone, alpha-haemoglobin-stabilising protein (AHSP) and impaired binding of alphaT-globin with AHSP compared with alpha(wild-type)-globin was observed.