In vitro DNA-binding profile of transcription factors: methods and new insights

The DNA-binding specificity of transcription factors (TFs) has broad impacts on cell physiology, cell development and in evolution. However, the DNA-binding specificity of most known TFs still remains unknown. The specificity of a TF protein is determined by its relative affinity to all possible binding sites. In recent years, the development of several in vitro techniques permits high-throughput determination of relative binding affinity of a TF to all possible k bp-long DNA sequences, thus greatly promoting the characterization of DNA-binding specificity of many known TFs. All DNA sequences that can be bound by a TF with various binding affinities form their DNA-binding profile (DBP). The DBP is important to generate an accurate DNA-binding model, identify all DNA-binding sites and target genes of TFs in the whole genome, and build transcription regulatory network. This study reviewed these techniques, especially two master techniques: double-stranded DNA microarray and systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment in combination with parallel DNA sequencing techniques (SELEX-seq).