Eh. Bresnick et G. Felsenfeld, EVIDENCE THAT THE TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR USF IS A COMPONENT OF THE HUMAN BETA-GLOBIN LOCUS-CONTROL REGION HETEROMERIC PROTEIN COMPLEX, The Journal of biological chemistry, 268(25), 1993, pp. 18824-18834
The human locus control region (LCR) consists of four DNase I hypersen
sitive sites upstream of the epsilon-globin gene and is intimately inv
olved in globin gene transcription. We have used DNase I footprinting
with K562 erythroleukemia cell extracts to identify protein components
of the minimal LCR element, hypersensitive site 2. Six major regions
of protection were observed, and the occupation of two regions (sites
II and V) was strongly temperature-dependent. Fractionation of K562 nu
clear proteins revealed a single major protein that bound tightly to s
ite II. An E-box was necessary for high affinity binding to DNA. We us
ed antibodies and recombinant USF protein to prove that the helix-loop
-helix transcription factor USF is the only detectible component in K5
62 cells that binds to this site. Despite significant differences betw
een site II and a canonical USF-binding site, the USF binding affinity
was comparable for the two sites. In both cases the interaction with
the E-box of either wild-type USF or a approximately 15-kDa minimal US
F DNA binding polypeptide displays an unusual positive temperature dep
endence, consistent with the observed footprinting behavior. The resul
ts show that a relatively ubiquitous factor, not confined to erythroid
cells, is an important part of the complex of proteins bound at hyper
sensitive site 2 of the LCR in K562 cells.