Delimitation of far upstream sequences required for maximal in vitro transcription of an H2A histone gene.

Sea urchin (psammechinus miliaris) H2A histone genes shown to be promoter mutants from oocyte injection experiments were tested for their ability to initiate transcription in vitro. Circular templates were transcribed with HeLa cell extracts, and the transcripts were assayed by mung bean or S1 nuclease mapping of the 5' ends. The transcripts of the H2A mutants produced in vitro were qualitatively similar and, in most cases, identical to those seen in oocyte injection experiments, but quite large quantitative differences were observed for some H2A mutant genes. Both the T-A-T-A box and far upstream sequences residing in the modulator segment E [Grosschedl, R. & Birnstiel, M. L. (1980) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 77, 7102--7106] were found to be essential for maximal transcription in vitro. Deletion of either of these sequence elements reduced transcription to 20%. A similar reduction in the amount of H2a transcripts was found when a T-A-T-A-to-T-A-G-A point mutant was tested in vitro. Essential far upstream sequences were mapped between nucleotides -139 and -111, 5' to the initiation site of transcription. In the standard run-off transcription test using restriction fragments, the effects of these sequences could be mimicked by free DNA ends, suggesting that the function of this in vitro upstream sequence might be to provide an entry side for RNA polymerase II.