Synthesis of Globin Ribonucleic Acid from Duck-Reticulocyte Chromatin In Vitro

The proteins of chromatin serve to restrict the transcription of DNA. The relevance of these findings to the control of gene expression is contingent upon the demonstration that this restriction is specific and mirrors the patterns of RNA synthesis observed in vivo. In this study we demonstrate by RNA-DNA hybridization that the vast majority of the chromatin-directed RNA is synthesized from the unique regions of the reticulocyte genome. Furthermore, by use of the DNA complement of globin mRNA as a probe in annealing reactions, de novo synthesis of globin RNA was detected in RNA transcripts from duck reticulocyte chromatin. No globin sequences were detected in similar preparations of RNA in vitro either from liver chromatin or from DNA freed of protein. These results show that the proteins of chromatin serve to restrict transcription in a very specific manner and provide convincing evidence for the existence of transcriptional control factors in eukaryotes.