Protein Function And Chromatin Structure Methods Featured In Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 04 Mar 2009 - 7:00 PDT

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Two new methods for analyzing the roles played by proteins in cells are featured in the March issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. Thomas J. Wandless and colleagues from Stanford University provide detailed instructions for Regulating Protein Stability in Mammalian Cells Using Small Molecules. This technique provides a rapid, reversible, and tunable method for studying the activity of a protein of interest in cells. The protein is attached to a destabilization domain, and the resulting fusion proteins are unstable and degraded, except in the presence of small ligands. The speed of small-molecule binding makes it an attractive alternative to studying gene function using RNA interference (RNAi). The method is freely accessible on the website for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols.

The second featured article for March looks at long-range chromosomal interactions and the proteins that mediate them. Stephen Baylin and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University contribute a method for the Combined 3C-ChIP-Cloning (6C) Assay: A Tool to Unravel Protein Mediated Genome Architecture. 6C technology combines multiple techniques to identify the proteins that bridge distant genomic regions, while simultaneously identifying physical proximities. The method is also useful for determining if a candidate protein might mediate long-range interactions, both in cis and in trans in the nucleus. The 6C assay advances our understanding of chromatin folding and provides an important tool to examine the role of specific proteins in nuclear organization. This method is freely accessible on the website for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols.

About Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

Cold Spring Harbor Protocols is a monthly peer-reviewed journal of methods used in a wide range of biology laboratories. It is structured to be highly interactive, with each protocol cross-linked to related methods, descriptive information panels, and illustrative material to maximize the total information available to investigators. Each protocol is clearly presented and designed for easy use at the bench-complete with reagents, equipment, and recipe lists. Life science researchers can access the entire collection via institutional site licenses, and can add their suggestions and comments to further refine the techniques.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is an internationally renowned publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, located on Long Island, New York. Since 1933, it has furthered the advance and spread of scientific knowledge in all areas of genetics and molecular biology, including cancer biology, plant science, bioinformatics, and neurobiology. It is a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an innovator in life science research and the education of scientists, students, and the public.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press