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HBS1L-MYB intergenic variants modulate fetal hemoglobin via long-range MYB enhancers
Ralph Stadhouders, … , Swee Lay Thein, Eric Soler
Ralph Stadhouders, … , Swee Lay Thein, Eric Soler
Published March 10, 2014
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2014;124(4):1699-1710. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI71520.
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Research Article Hematology

HBS1L-MYB intergenic variants modulate fetal hemoglobin via long-range MYB enhancers

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Abstract

Genetic studies have identified common variants within the intergenic region (HBS1L-MYB) between GTP-binding elongation factor HBS1L and myeloblastosis oncogene MYB on chromosome 6q that are associated with elevated fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels and alterations of other clinically important human erythroid traits. It is unclear how these noncoding sequence variants affect multiple erythrocyte characteristics. Here, we determined that several HBS1L-MYB intergenic variants affect regulatory elements that are occupied by key erythroid transcription factors within this region. These elements interact with MYB, a critical regulator of erythroid development and HbF levels. We found that several HBS1L-MYB intergenic variants reduce transcription factor binding, affecting long-range interactions with MYB and MYB expression levels. These data provide a functional explanation for the genetic association of HBS1L-MYB intergenic polymorphisms with human erythroid traits and HbF levels. Our results further designate MYB as a target for therapeutic induction of HbF to ameliorate sickle cell and β-thalassemia disease severity.

Authors

Ralph Stadhouders, Suleyman Aktuna, Supat Thongjuea, Ali Aghajanirefah, Farzin Pourfarzad, Wilfred van IJcken, Boris Lenhard, Helen Rooks, Steve Best, Stephan Menzel, Frank Grosveld, Swee Lay Thein, Eric Soler

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Figure 6

rs66650371 affects protein binding, chromatin looping, and enhancer activity within the erythroid HBS1L-MYB locus.

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rs66650371 affects protein binding, chromatin looping, and enhancer acti...
(A) Allele-specific ChIP experiments for the rs66650371 alleles in K562 cells heterozygous for this variant. Occupancy of rs66650371 (within the –84 element) by LDB1, GATA1, TAL1, and KLF1 was measured by ChIP-qPCR (n = 2, normalized against AMY2A promoter values), followed by an allele-specific read-out using MaeIII digestion (n = 2, see Methods and Supplemental Figure 4). Allelic abundance was expressed as a rs66650371 (minor)/reference (major) ratio, which was set to 1 for genomic DNA (gDNA). A ratio of less than 1 is the result of a relative lower abundance of the rs66650371 minor allele in the ChIP samples. (B) TAL1 ChIP-Seq was performed in K562 cells, and sequence reads were mapped against the reference and rs66650371 (containing the minor 3-bp deletion allele) genomes. K562 input genomic DNA was PCR amplified (amplicon spanning rs66650371) and cloned into a plasmid; colonies were sequenced (n = 20). (C) Allele-specific quantification (n = 3) of chromatin looping between the –84 element and the MYB promoter in K562 cells. A long-range PCR approach was combined with an MaeIII digestion-based read-out for quantification (see Methods). (D) Luciferase reporter assays measuring enhancer activity of the reference (ref.) and rs66650371 minor –84 enhancer alleles in erythroid (MEL) and nonerythroid (HEK) cells. Error bars display SEM. Statistical significance was determined using Student’s t test. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.

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ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

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