The upstream region of the human gamma-globin gene promoter. Identification and functional analysis of nuclear protein binding sites.

The promoter of the human gamma-globin gene confers tissue specificity as well as developmental stage specificity to gamma gene expression. Earlier work in our laboratory suggested that a fragment of the gamma-globin promoter between -300 and -137 base pairs upstream of the transcription start site contributed to the developmental specificity of the promoter. In this paper, we have mapped potential regulatory elements within this upstream region of the gamma promoter by a combination of in vitro DNA-protein binding assays and functional determinations of promoter strength in transient expression studies. Four sites between -300 and -130 bind proteins present in nuclear extracts of erythroid and non-erythroid cell lines. Mutation of these binding sites by internal base substitution determined that three of the four influence overall promoter strength in transient assays. We have focused on two protein binding sites, -246 to -212 and -195 to -170, that have been reported to bind erythroid-specific factors. The erythroid binding protein NF-E1 and a ubiquitous octamer protein footprint the -195 to -170 site. While internal mutation of this site did not significantly alter promoter strength, a point mutation at position -175 that is associated with hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin increased the activity of a promoter construct 20-fold in erythroid cells. A detailed mutational analysis of this site suggests that NF-E1 binding is necessary but not sufficient for activation of the promoter by the -175 mutation, and we propose that a second protein or co-activator is required. The nucleotides between -246 and -212 appear to bind a complex of at least three proteins, at the core of which is a protein binding to a string of dA:dT residues. This complex also appears to form on the 3' A gamma-globin enhancer, and homologous sites have been identified within the locus activating region of the beta-globin cluster, suggesting that this element may mediate long range interactions with distant regulatory elements.