Detection and characterization of ubiquitylated H2B in mammalian cells

Histone H2B ubiquitylation was shown to be associated with actively transcribed genes in mammalian cells and has been suggested to be involved in transcriptional regulation. Despite the limited applicability of genetic tools to analyze H2B ubiquitylation in mammals, several biochemical and immunological approaches have been successfully implemented to study this modification. Here we describe several techniques to detect ubiquitylated H2B in mammalian cells and to dissect its genomic localization.