Methods for In Vivo Functional Studies of Chromatin-Modifying Enzymes in Early Steps of Colon Carcinogenesis

Since chromatin-modifying enzymes are involved in most processes needing to access the DNA fiber such as transcription, replication or DNA repair, their involvement in the regulation of gene expression in numerous physiopathological contexts is widely studied. Most of these enzymes are essential for cell growth and survival due to their pleiotropic roles and studying their impact in vivo on organ development or tissue physiopathology is challenging. In this chapter, we describe a chemically-mediated method to induce colorectal carcinogenesis that we have used to identify in vivo the role of two chromatin modifying enzymes belonging to the same multimolecular complex, the histone acetyltransferase Tip60 and the histone variant-incorporating ATPase p400.