Cloning and direct examination of a structurally abnormal human beta 0-thalassemia globin gene.

Restriction endonuclease mapping permitted identification of a form of beta 0-thalassemia in which a partial deletion of the beta-globin structural gene occurred [Orkin, S. H., Old, J. M., Weatherall, D. J. & Nathan, D. G. (1979) Proc. Natil. Acad. Sci. USA 76, 2400-2404]. To analyze its structure more directly, this abnormal human gene has now been cloned in bacteriophage lambda gtWES. Restriction mapping of the cloned gene and of a normal beta-globin gene contained in the phage H beta G1 confirmed previous findings regarding the presence of a deletion toward the 3' end of the gene but could not establish its position more accurately. Electron microscopy of the hybrid of the beta-thalassemia gene with globin RNA (R-loop analysis) provided unequivocal evidence for a deletion with the beta-globin structural gene. Hybridization of restriction fragments of the mutant gene with homologous fragments of H beta G1 (heteroduplex analysis) revealed a continuous, internal deletion of about 0.6 kilobase of DNA in the mutant gene and permitted its localization within the beta-globin gene region. This deletion removed the terminal third of the large intervening sequence within the beta-globin gene, the entire 3' coding block (extending from codon 105 to the end of the gene), and approximately 150 base pairs of DNA past the end of the normal globin gene.