A 66-base pair insert bridges the deletion responsible for a mouse model of beta-thalassemia

The breakpoints of the deletion responsible for the Hbb(th-1) mouse model of beta-thalassemia have been isolated. A 3709 (+/- 2)-base pair (bp) region, including the entire beta major globin gene and 2 kilobases of 5' flanking region, is deleted. A novel 66 (+/- 2)-bp sequence, ending in a stretch of 25 dA:dT base pairs, was found to bridge the deletion. A region of the normal murine genome, containing the first 43 bp of the deletion-associated insert (DAI), but lacking the 25-bp dA:dT sequence, was isolated. All normal mice tested contain this DAI-like element and several inbred strains contain an additional DAI-like element. The sequence spanning the Hbb(th-1) deletion may be a reverse transcript of this region.