Abstract
Linear chromatin fiber is packed inside the nuclei as a complex three-dimensional structure, and the organization of the chromatin has important roles in the appropriate spatial and temporal regulation of gene expression. To understand how chromatin organizes inside nuclei, and how regulatory proteins physically interact with genes, chromosome conformation capture (3C) technique provides a powerful and sensitive tool to detect both short- and long-range DNA–DNA interaction. Here I describe the 3C technique to detect the DNA–DNA interactions mediated by insulator proteins that are closely related to PcG in Drosophila, which is also broadly applicable to other systems.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Pirrotta V, Li HB (2012) A view of nuclear Polycomb bodies. Curr Opin Genet Dev 22(2):101–109. doi:10.1016/j.gde.2011.11.004
Gall JG, Pardue ML (1969) Formation and detection of RNA-DNA hybrid molecules in cytological preparations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 63(2):378–383
Li HB, Ohno K, Gui H, Pirrotta V (2013) Insulators target active genes to transcription factories and polycomb-repressed genes to polycomb bodies. PLoS Genet 9(4):e1003436. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003436
Li HB, Muller M, Bahechar IA, Kyrchanova O, Ohno K, Georgiev P, Pirrotta V (2011) Insulators, not Polycomb response elements, are required for long-range interactions between Polycomb targets in Drosophila melanogaster. Mol Cell Biol 31(4):616–625. doi:10.1128/MCB.00849-10
Robinett CC, Straight A, Li G, Willhelm C, Sudlow G, Murray A, Belmont AS (1996) In vivo localization of DNA sequences and visualization of large-scale chromatin organization using lac operator/repressor recognition. J Cell Biol 135(6 Pt 2):1685–1700
Straight AF, Belmont AS, Robinett CC, Murray AW (1996) GFP tagging of budding yeast chromosomes reveals that protein–protein interactions can mediate sister chromatid cohesion. Curr Biol 6(12):1599–1608
Dekker J, Rippe K, Dekker M, Kleckner N (2002) Capturing chromosome conformation. Science 295(5558):1306–1311. doi:10.1126/science.1067799
Dekker J (2014) Two ways to fold the genome during the cell cycle: insights obtained with chromosome conformation capture. Epigenetics Chromatin 7:25. doi:10.1186/1756-8935-7-25
Dekker J (2006) The three ‘C’s of chromosome conformation capture: controls, controls, controls. Nat Methods 3(1):17–21. doi:10.1038/Nmeth823
Acknowledgement
I sincerely thank Dr. Vincenzo Pirrotta for his guidance to develop the technique in his lab at the department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Rutgers University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Li, HB. (2016). Chromosome Conformation Capture in Drosophila. In: Lanzuolo, C., Bodega, B. (eds) Polycomb Group Proteins. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1480. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6380-5_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6380-5_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6378-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6380-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols