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In recognition of monumental impact of gene expression in producing normal and abnor-
mal cellular states, we are pleased to offer the scientific community a volume on Gene
Regulation, Methods and Protocols. The goal is to provide scientists in academia, food, and
pharmaceutical industry, as well as public institutions, complementary technologies for
investigating various facets of regulatory systems that contribute to the control of protein-
coding genes in mammalian cells.
The technologies are broad in their scope. They include biochemical assays, methods in
molecular biology, spectroscopic techniques, and high-throughput approaches for delineat-
ing key processes that contribute to the regulation of gene expression. The chapters are
organized to offer a comprehensive, integrated, and coherent view of control systems and
their associated components. The introductory chapter draws attention to the intercon-
nectivity of regulatory circuits and provides examples of regulatory hubs. This chapter
underscores the importance of protein networks in dynamics of gene activation, gene
repression, and histone modifications.
Several techniques encompass chromatin structural features that influence gene activa-
tion. Two chapters detail methods for DNase hypersensitivity analysis, for high-throughput
DNA sequencing to study chromatin accessibility and to identify regulatory DNA sequences
on a global scale. Another chapter focuses on DNA derived from nucleosome-free regions
for functional assays, to localize and study the activity of Ñ-regulatory modules dispersed
within promoters and enhancers of genes. |
