Chromatin immunoprecipitation: a tool for studying histone acetylation and transcription factor binding

The function of a protein in gene expression can often be explained, in part, by the location of that protein along a specific gene sequence. In recent years, the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay has been developed to study the association of proteins located within 2 A of DNA such as transcription factors and modified histones. Numerous important findings have been published using the ChIP assay and many questions about transcription have been answered. In this article, we present the ChIP assay currently used in our lab and discuss the various ways to optimize this assay for one's own use.