ChIP-chip comes of age for genome-wide functional analysis

In the post-genome era, attention has focused on the functions of genome sequences and how they are regulated. The emerging epigenomic changes and the interactions between cis-acting elements and protein factors may play a central role in gene regulation. To understand the crosstalk between DNA and protein on a genome-wide scale, one emerging technique, called ChIP-chip, takes the strategy of combining chromatin immunoprecipitation with microarray. This new high-throughput strategy helps screen the targets of critical transcription factors and profile the genome-wide distribution of histone modifications, which will enable the feasibility of conducting a large-scale study, such as the Human Epigenome Project.