Chromatin dynamics and the regulation of B-glohin gene expression

The human B-globin locus is frequently used as a model system to study mechanisms controlling tissue-specific and developmentally regulated gene expression. Much of the recent progress in understanding the regulation of B-globin gene expression has come from a better knowledge of the process of transcription. Proper transcriptional regulation of the human B-globin genes occurs, at least in part, through specific interactions of regulatory traus-acting proteins to defined cis-regulatory sequences that include promoters, enhancers, silencers, and elements of the locus control region.