There is still no clarity on whether the endonuclease incisions in apoptotic cells are induced randomly in the genome or induced in some preferable sites. In order to evaluate the intensity of DNA fragmentation in the chicken alpha-globin domain, AEV-virus transformed chicken erythroblasts (HD3) were incubated in a serum free medium, and their DNA was Southern blotted and hybridised with probes representing different fragments of the domain. Probes corresponding to the upstream areas of the domain mostly hybridised with high molecular weight DNA. Unlike these, the probe corresponding to the 2 Kb BamHI-BamHI fragment, containing the alphaA globin gene (B18), revealed a 5 Kb band on the hybridisation autoradiographs. The probe to the neighbouring upstream fragment did not reveal this band, but it was clearly seen on hybridisations with a downstream 1 Kb BamHI-BamHI fragment. The intensity of the band increased with overall apoptotic DNA degradation, hence its appearance should be coupled to apoptosis. Hybridisation of BamHI-digested DNA with B18 probe revealed a shortening of the 2 Kb band in preparations of DNA from apoptotic cells. The presumable positions of the cuts correspond to the formerly described DNase hypersensitive sites in the domain. Slot-blot and Northern hybridisation of RNA extracted from apoptotic HD3 cells revealed that the excision of the area of the B18 gene is coupled to a decrease in the intensity of alphaA globin gene transcription. Transcription of the non-erythroid NIK gene, transcribed in the upstream part of the domain, did not depend on the level of apoptotic DNA fragmentation.
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