Skip to main content

Mapping Regulatory Elements by DNaseI Hypersensitivity Chip (DNase-Chip)

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Microarray Analysis of the Physical Genome

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology™ ((MIMB,volume 556))

Abstract

Historically, the simplest method to robustly identify active gene regulatory elements has been enzymatic digestion of nuclear DNA by nucleases such as DNaseI. Regions of extreme chromatin accessibility to DNaseI, commonly known as DNaseI hypersensitive sites, have been repeatedly shown to be markers for all types of active cis-acting regulatory elements, including promoters, enhancers, silencers, insulators, and locus control regions. However, the original classical method, which for over 25 years relied on Southern blot, was limited to studying only small regions of the genome. Here we describe the detailed protocol for DNase-chip, a high-throughput method that allows for a targeted or genome-wide identification of cis-acting gene regulatory elements.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. The Encode Project Consortium. (2007) Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project. Nature 447, 799–816.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Stalder, J., Larsen, A., Engel, J. D., Dolan, M., Groudine, M., and Weintraub, H. (1980) Tissue-specific DNA cleavages in the globin chromatin domain introduced by DNAase I. Cell 20, 451–460.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Felsenfeld, G., and Groudine, M. (2003) Controlling the double helix. Nature 421, 448–453.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Gross, D. S., and Garrard, W. T. (1988) Nuclease hypersensitive sites in chromatin. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 57, 159–197.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Keene, M. A., Corces, V., Lowenhaupt, K., and Elgin, S. C. (1981) DNase I hypersensitive sites in Drosophila chromatin occur at the 5' ends of regions of transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78, 143–146.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. McGhee, J. D., Wood, W. I., Dolan, M., Engel, J. D., and Felsenfeld, G. (1981) A 200 base pair region at the 5' end of the chicken adult [beta]-globin gene is accessible to nuclease digestion. Cell 27, 45–55.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Wu, C. (1980) The 5' ends of Drosophila heat shock genes in chromatin are hypersensitive to DNase I. Nature 286, 854–860.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Crawford, G. E. (2004) Identifying gene regulatory elements by genome-wide recovery of DNase hypersensitive sites. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 992–997.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Crawford, G. E., Davis, S., Scacheri, P. C., Renaud, G., Halawi, M. J., Erdos, M. R., Green, R., Meltzer, P. S., Wolfsberg, T. G., and Collins, F. S. (2006) DNase-chip: a high-resolution method to identify DNase I hypersensitive sites using tiled microarrays. Nat. Meth. 3, 503–509.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Boyle, A. P., Davis, S., Shulha, H. P., Meltzer, P., Margulies, E. H., Weng, Z., Furey, T. S., and Crawford, G. E. (2008) High-resolution mapping and characterization of open chromatin across the genome. Cell 132, 311–322.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Scacheri, P. C., Crawford, G. E., and Davis, S. (2006) in Methods in Enzymology, Vol. 411, pp. 270–282, Academic Press, San Diego.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Buck, M., Nobel, A., and Lieb, J. (2005) ChIPOTle: a user-friendly tool for the analysis of ChIP-chip data. Genome Biol. 6, R97.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Lingyun Song for her technical assistance and helpful discussions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Shibata, Y., Crawford, G.E. (2009). Mapping Regulatory Elements by DNaseI Hypersensitivity Chip (DNase-Chip). In: Pollack, J. (eds) Microarray Analysis of the Physical Genome. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 556. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-192-9_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-192-9_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-60327-191-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-192-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics