Interactions of transcriptional regulators with histones

Tremendous advances in the study of chromatin have revealed new classes of transcriptional regulators distinct from classical DNA-binding proteins. Many previously described transcription factors, coactivators, and adaptors are regulators of chromatin structure, interacting directly with the core histone proteins or with nucleosomes. This review describes a method used by our laboratory to examine the interactions of regulatory proteins with the core histone proteins. Far-Western analysis uses a protein probe to detect interactions with histones immobilized on membranes. Variations of this technique can detect the acetylation state of the interacting histones and whether the interaction occurs through the globular domain or the amino-terminal "tail" domain. In addition, we discuss complementary techniques for confirming histone-regulatory protein interactions.