Extended Core Sequences from the cHS4 Insulator Are Necessary for Protecting Retroviral Vectors from Silencing Position Effects

The prototypic chromatin insulator cHS4 has proven effective at reducing repressive chromosomal position effects on retroviral vector expression. We report here studies designed to identify the minimal chicken hypersensitive site-4 (cHS4) sequences necessary for this activity. Using a gammaretroviral reporter vector and expression analysis in cell lines and primary mouse hematopoietic progenitor colonies, we found that a 250-bp core fragment reported to contain most of the cHS4 insulating activity failed to prevent silencing when used alone, although some barrier activity was observed when this fragment was combined with a 790-bp, but not 596-bp, spacer. Similar studies showed that four copies of a 90-bp fragment containing the cHS4 enhancer-blocking activity actually repressed vector green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression. In contrast, a 400-bp fragment containing the 250-bp core plus 3′ flanking sequences protected vector expression to the same degree as the full-length 1.2-kb fragment. The 400-bp f...