Overview of the human α-globin (HBA) locus (16p13.3). Genes of the α-locus are shown in black and other genes are in gray. Pseudogenes are in white. Genes shown above the line are transcribed toward the centromere and those below the line are transcribed toward the telomere (black oval). The gray bar above indicates the domain of erythroid-specific histone hyperacetylation.4 Below are indicated CpG islands (black bars), and previously documented erythroid-specific (black arrows) and ubiquitous (gray arrows) DNaseI hypersensitive sites. * indicates HS analyzed in this study. At bottom is shown the position of real-time PCR amplicons used to analyze quantitative ChIP experiments (gray bars). The probes spanning the duplicated adult stage-specific HBA genes (boxed) do not distinguish the HBA2 and HBA1 genes.
