The Ly-6E.1 (Sca-1) gene requires a 3' chromatin-dependent region for high-level gamma-interferon-induced hematopoietic cell expression.

The Ly-6E.1/A.2 gene product recognized by the Sca-1 antibody has been found on murine hematopoietic stem cells and some hematopoietic precursors, T lymphocytes, and nonhematopoietic cell lineages, suggesting a complex array of gene regulatory elements. The ability to use the Ly6E.1/A.2 transcriptional regulatory elements to direct expression of heterologous genes will allow for the manipulation of these cells during development and in hematopoietic cell transplantations. To identify the elements necessary for high-level expression, we have made deletion constructs of Ly-6E.1 gene flanking regions containing DNase I hypersensitive sites, tested them for expression in hematopoietic cells, and have performed kinetic analyses to correlate the appearance of hypersensitive sites with gene transcription and protein expression. We show that a 3' region containing two DNase I hypersensitive sites at +8.7 and +8.9 kb is required for high-level, gamma-interferon (gamma-IFN)-induced expression of the Ly-6E.1 gene and that a consensus sequence for a gamma-IFN-responsive element localizes to the +8.7 site. We also provide a description of allele- and cell-specific DNase I hypersensitive site patterns of the Ly-6E.1 and Ly-6A.2 genes. Taken together, these data indicate that while both 5' and 3' hypersensitive sites are rapidly induced with gamma-IFN, the 3' most distal hypersensitive sites are involved in directing high levels of expression of Sca-1 in hematopoietic cells.