Constitutive attachment of murine erythroleukemia cell histone-depleted DNA loops to nuclear scaffolding is found in the beta-major but not the alpha 1-globin gene.

We have identified a region of the beta-globin gene that is attached constitutively to histone-depleted murine erythroleukemia cell nuclei. This region spans 800 bp and is located at -300 to -1100 bp upstream from the site of transcriptional initiation. Attachment is not altered by transcriptional activation of the beta-globin gene during induction to terminal differentiation, and the same region of the beta-globin gene is attached to histone-depleted myeloma cell nuclei (NS-1). The attached region contains an A/T-rich section, in addition to a sequence closely related to the Drosophila topoisomerase II consensus cleavage sequence. No comparable site of attachment of the alpha 1-globin gene was detected when a region spanning 1.5 kb 5' to 0.5 kb 3' of the region of transcription was studied.