Chromatin Immunoprecipitation from Formaldehyde Cross-Linked Olfactory Sensory Neurons

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) allows a researcher to determine the genomic occupancy of nuclear proteins, providing insight into the roles of transcription factors, chromatin modifiers, histone modifications, and other factors bound to DNA. Protein-DNA interactions are first fixed in vivo by chemical cross-linking, and then a target protein is captured together with any associated DNA by an antibody mediated pull-down. The co-immunoprecipitated DNA can then be assayed by quantitative PCR or deep sequencing. Here, we demonstrate this technique using murine olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) purified using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and antibodies for the ubiquitous chromatin protein CTCF.