Transcriptional regulation of vav, a gene expressed throughout the hematopoietic compartment

Abstract

The vav gene is expressed in all hematopoietic but few other cell types. To explore its unusual compartment-wide regulation, we cloned the murine gone, sequenced its promoter region, identified DNase I hypersensitive (HS) sites in the chromatin, and tested their promoter activity with a β- galactosidase (β-gal) reporter gene in cell lines and transgenic mice. Whereas fibroblasts had no HS sites, a myeloid and an erythroid cell line contained five, located 0.2 kb (HS1), 1.9 kb (HS2), and 3.6 kb (HS3) upstream from the transcription start and 0.6 kb (HS4) and 10 kb (HS5) downstream. A vav DNA fragment including HS1 promoted β-gal expression in a myeloid but not a fibroblast line. Expression in..