Genomic Organization, Chromatin Structure, and Transcriptional Regulation of the Murine Alpha Hemoglobin Stabilizing Protein (AHSP) Gene.

Alpha Hemoglobin Stabilizing Protein (AHSP, Eraf) is an abundant erythroid protein that binds and stabilizes alpha globin and alpha hemoglobin (Hb). In mice, loss of AHSP causes hemolytic anemia, with elevated levels of reactive oxygen species and Hb precipitation in erythrocytes. Loss of AHSP exacerbates beta thalassemia phenotypes in mice, presumably by enhancing the toxicity of excessive free alpha Hb. Based on these findings, AHSP is a candidate modifier gene for beta thalassemia in humans. No mutations in the AHSP coding region have been identified in patients to date. However, several groups reported an inverse correlation between beta thalassemia severity and erythroid AHSP expression levels, raising the possibility that AHSP is a quantitative trait modifier of beta thalassemia. To address this possibility, it is important to define the mechanisms that control expression of the AHSP gene. Transcripts of murine Ahsp are inducible by GATA-1. The goals of the current studies are to investigate the mechanisms of this induction and to define the DNA domain that regulates the locus. Using phylogenetic comparisons, we identified a hotspot for mammalian chromosomal rearrangement just downstream of the Ahsp gene. This hotspot is located at the end of a syntenic block of approximately 350 kb that is conserved in mammals and likely marks the 3′ end of the gene regulatory domain. We focused our initial functional studies on a 7 kb genomic region bounded at the 5′ (centromeric) end of Ahsp by the nearest adjacent gene, an EST expressed in multiple tissues, and at the 3′ (telomeric) end by the rearrangement hotspot. In transient transfection assays, the Ahsp promoter region conferred erythroid-specific expression to a linked reporter gene. In heterologous cells, GATA-1 transactivated the Ahsp promoter in a dose-dependent fashion. To examine GATA-1 binding and its subsequent effects on the Ahsp gene in vivo, we used G1E-ER4 cells, a GATA-1 null erythroblast line that undergoes terminal erythroid maturation after activation of an estradiol-inducible form of GATA-1. We made several findings with regards to the role of GATA-1 in Ahsp gene regulation. First, GATA-1 and its cofactor, Friend of GATA-1 (FOG-1), bind directly to the Ahsp locus at regions that contain conserved GATA consensus motifs and are predicted to be important erythroid regulatory elements by our bioinformatic studies. Second, GATA-1 induces epigenetic changes in chromatin structure that are associated with gene activation, including formation of a DNase I hypersensitive site, hyperacetylation of histones H3 and H4, and methylation of histone H3 lysine-4. Together, these findings begin to establish the DNA region and mechanisms that control Ahsp transcription, allowing for further studies to map the cis elements responsible for population variations in gene expression.