Locus control regions: coming of age at a decade plus.
The beta-globin locus control region (LCR) is the founding member of a novel class of cis-acting regulatory elements that confer high level, tissue-specific, site-of-integration-independent, copy number-dependent expression on linked transgenes located in ectopic chromatin sites. Knowledge from beta-globin and other LCR studies has shed light on our understanding of the long-range interaction between enhancers and promoters, the relationship between chromatin conformation and transcriptional regulation, and the developmental regulation of multiple gene loci. After over a decade of investigation and discovery, we take a retrospective look at the beta-globin LCR and other LCRs, summarize their properties and review models of LCR function.
Li
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Division of Medical Genetics, Mail Box 357720, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. li111640@u.washington.edu
Harju
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S
Peterson
K R
KR
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D019901:Locus Control Region; D015533:Transcriptional Activation