Enhancer-facilitated expression of a human H4 histone gene.

Cultured mammalian cells were transfected with a recombinant human H4 histone gene. S1 nuclease mapping of cellular RNAs from transfected cells revealed: (i) correct initiation of transcription at the cap site, with some transcripts originating from other sites in the 5' flanking region of this H4 gene; (ii) cis-linkage of an SV-40 transcriptional enhancer element upstream of the H4 5'-flanking region resulted in about a 50-fold increase in the level of correctly initiated H4 mRNA and (iii) in a heterologous murine system stability of human H4 mRNAs was apparently sensitive to inhibition of DNA-synthesis by hydroxyurea. Our results suggest that certain sequences required for the initiation of a human H4 histone gene transcript reside within the 210 nucleotides immediately upstream from the cap site and that the level of expression is influenced by the introduction of an enhancer element.