MCB Accepts, published online ahead of print on 20 August 2007

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Mol. Cell. Biol. doi:10.1128/MCB.00931-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

The SCL +40 enhancer targets midbrain together with primitive and definitive hematopoiesis and is regulated by SCL and GATA proteins

S. Ogilvy, R. Ferreira, S. G. Piltz, J. M. Bowen, B. Göttgens, and A. R. Green^*

University of Cambridge, Department of Haematology, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0XY, United Kingdom

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: arg1000{at}cam.ac.uk.

The SCL/Tal1 gene encodes a bHLH transcription factor with key roles in hematopoietic and neural development. SCL is expressed in, and required for, both primitive and definitive erythropoiesis. Thus far, we have identified only one erythroid SCL enhancer. Located 40 kb downstream of exon 1a, the +40 enhancer displays activity in primitive erythroblasts. We demonstrate here that a 3.7 kb fragment containing this element also targets expression to midbrain, a known site of endogenous SCL expression. Although the 3.7 kb construct was active in primitive, but not definitive erythroblasts, a larger 5.0 kb fragment, encompassing the 3.7 kb region, was active in both fetal and adult definitive hematopoietic cells. This included Ter119⁺ erythroid cells along with fetal liver erythroid and myeloid progenitors. Unlike two other SCL hematopoietic enhancers (+18/19 and -4), +40 enhancer transgenes were inactive in endothelium. A conserved 400 bp core region, essential for both hematopoietic and midbrain +40 enhancer activity in embryos, relied on two GATA/E-box motifs and was bound in vivo by GATA-1 and SCL in erythroid cells. These results suggest a model in which the SCL +18/19 and/or -4 enhancers initiate SCL expression in early mesodermal derivatives capable of generating blood and endothelium, with subsequent activation of the +40 enhancer via an auto-regulatory loop.

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