Bi Xin
Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
Genetics. 2002 Apr;160(4):1401-7. doi: 10.1093/genetics/160.4.1401.
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the HM loci and regions adjacent to the telomeres are transcriptionally silent. HML is situated 11 kb from the left telomere of chromosome III. I have systematically examined gene silencing along this 11-kb chromosomal region. I found that silencing extends at least 1.1 kb beyond HML, indicating that the HML E silencer acts on both sides. Moreover, I obtained evidence indicating that a 0.71-kb sequence near the E silencer acts as a barrier to the spread of silencing and coincides with the left boundary of the silent HML domain. I also showed that silencing at the telomere is limited to an approximately 2-kb domain. On the other hand, an approximately 7-kb region between HML and the telomere is not silenced by HML or the telomere. These results provide a clear example of organization of the eukaryotic genome into interspersed domains with distinct potentials for gene expression.
在酿酒酵母中,HM位点以及端粒附近的区域在转录上是沉默的。HML位于第三条染色体左端粒11 kb处。我系统地研究了沿着这个11 kb染色体区域的基因沉默情况。我发现沉默至少延伸到HML以外1.1 kb,这表明HML E沉默子在两侧都起作用。此外,我获得的证据表明,E沉默子附近一个0.71 kb的序列作为沉默扩散的屏障,并且与沉默的HML结构域的左边界重合。我还表明,端粒处的沉默仅限于大约2 kb的结构域。另一方面,HML和端粒之间大约7 kb的区域不会被HML或端粒沉默。这些结果为真核基因组组织成具有不同基因表达潜力的散布结构域提供了一个清晰的例子。