chIP Experimet to Identify Proteins Associated with DNA (IMAGE)
Caption
In a chIP experiment, antibodies to proteins bearing particular epigenetic marks are used to fish them out of the cell. The chemical formaldehyde binds proteins (blue pods) to neighboring DNA (top left). The cells are then broken open and the DNA is cut into fragments. Antibodies (yellow Ys) specific to the proteins then grab the protein-DNA complexes and affix them to a solid surface (top right). The proteins are discarded and the double-stranded DNA molecule is unzipped and each half is tagged with a fluorescent molecule (green ball). The tagged DNA fragments are then poured over a DNA microarray which holds single-stranded fragments of fruit fly DNA. Whenever a labeled fragment finds a matching fragment on the array, the two fragments zip together. The labeled fragments glow under fluorescent light (bottom left). The light signal is captured by a camera, and converted to numerical values that can be analyzed by a computer.
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Based on illustration in Wikimedia Commons
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