Location analysis of DNA-bound proteins at the whole-genome level: untangling transcriptional regulatory networks

In this post-sequencing era, geneticists can focus on functional genomics a n a much larger scale than ever before. One goal is the discovery and eluci dation of the intricate genetic networks that co-ordinate transcriptional a ctivation in different regulatory circuitries. High-throughput gene express ion measurement using DNA arrays has thus become routine strategy. This app roach, however, does not directly identify gene loci that belong to the sam e regulatory group; e,g,, those that are bound by a common (set of) transcr iption factor(s), Working in yeast, two groups have recently published an e legant method that could circumvent this problem, by combining chromatin im munoprecipitation and DNA micro-arrays.((1,2)) The method is likely to prov ide a powerful arrays. tool for the dissection of global regulatory network s in eukaryotic cells. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.