IMR Press / FBL / Volume 10 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/1660

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Organization and expression of the human serpin gene cluster at 14q32.1
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1 Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2005, 10(2), 1768–1778; https://doi.org/10.2741/1660
Published: 1 May 2005
Abstract

The serpins are a superfamily of gene sequences that have been conserved through evolution. These genes encode protein products that perform a variety of functions in vivo, and their regulation differs among different cell types. About one-third of the serpin genes in the human genome are located at 14q32.1, and the serpin genes in this ~370 kb region are organized into discrete proximal, central, and distal subclusters of four, three, and four genes each. In this report we discuss the genomic organization of the 14q32.1 serpin gene cluster, and we summarize what is known about the regulation of each serpin gene in this region. An approach for studying locus-wide regulation of chromosomal serpin genes in situ is also described. Using this approach, specific mutations in the proximal serpin subcluster were prepared by homologous recombination. These mutant alleles define a serpin locus control region that regulates gene activity and chromatin structure of the entire proximal subcluster. Prospects for further analyses of this complex genomic domain are discussed.

Keywords
gene regulation
chromatin structure
serpins
locus control region
homologous recombination
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