PMC:1359074 / 1435-2840 JSONTXT

{"project":"sentences","denotations":[{"id":"T12","span":{"begin":0,"end":8},"obj":"Sentence"},{"id":"T13","span":{"begin":9,"end":178},"obj":"Sentence"},{"id":"T14","span":{"begin":179,"end":483},"obj":"Sentence"},{"id":"T15","span":{"begin":484,"end":662},"obj":"Sentence"},{"id":"T16","span":{"begin":663,"end":850},"obj":"Sentence"},{"id":"T17","span":{"begin":851,"end":1184},"obj":"Sentence"},{"id":"T18","span":{"begin":1185,"end":1405},"obj":"Sentence"}],"namespaces":[{"prefix":"_base","uri":"http://pubannotation.org/ontology/tao.owl#"}],"text":"Synopsis\nBeta-globin gene switching—the transition from embryonic to fetal to adult synthesis of specific globin chains—results in hemoglobins with different affinity for oxygen. This system is a longstanding paradigm for developmental biology and is directly relevant to human disease, since small amounts of normal embryonic or fetal beta-globins can “balance” the detrimental effect of abnormal or missing adult globins in diseases such as sickle cell anemia and beta-thalassemia.\nIn the current study, the transcription factor Sox6 was identified as a novel and crucial silencing factor of epsilon (embryonic) globin through a somewhat serendipitous pathway. The authors had previously identified a chromosomal inversion, p100H, by virtue of its effect on the pink-eyed dilution gene and found that the same inversion also disrupts the Sox6 gene. Using p100H mutant mice as a tool for identifying downstream targets of Sox6, the authors discovered that epsilon-globin levels were dramatically elevated, paving the way for a series of molecular genetic experiments demonstrating that Sox6 directly binds to and normally inhibits transcription from the epsilon-globin gene promoter. This work provides fundamental new insights into regulation of globin gene transcription during development, and provides new clues for manipulating globin gene transcription as an approach to treat human blood diseases."}