The streptavidin/biotinylated DNA/protein bound complex protocol for determining the association of c-JUN protein...

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a widely used and pre-eminent technique for detecting the association of an individual protein or a particular protein complex with its specific DNA sequence(s) in vivo. Herein we introduce a novel and simple biotinylated-oligonucleotide-mediated ChIP method for testing specific binding of the c-JUN protein to the M1-DNA-regulatory element in the NANOG promoter. We prepared a 260-bp DNA PCR amplicon containing -300 bp to -59 bp, relative to the transcriptional start site of the human NANOG gene, which was transfected into mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) containing wild-type (c-jun(+/+)) or knockout c-jun (c-jun(-/-)) alleles. Whole cells that were cross-linked using formaldehyde and protein-DNA interactions were immunoprecipitated using streptavidin-coupled Dynabeads. Protein-DNA cross-links were reversed during incubation at 95°C, and protein samples were visualized using SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and western blotting. This streptavidin/biotinylated DNA/protein-bound complex protocol can be used for detecting the interactions between multiple transcription factors and their DNA binding sites.