High-Sensitivity ChIP Kit (ab185913)

Protein-DNA interaction plays a critical role for cellular functions such as signal transduction, gene transcription, chromosome segregation, DNA replication and recombination, and epigenetic silencing. Identifying the genetic targets of DNA binding proteins and knowing the mechanisms of protein-DNA interaction is important for understanding cellular processes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) offers an advantageous tool for studying such protein-DNA interactions. It allows for the detection of a specific protein bound to a specific gene sequence in living cells using PCR (ChIP-PCR), microarrays (ChIP-chip), or sequencing (ChIP-seq). For example, measurement of the amount of methylated histone H3 at lysine 9 (meH3-K9) associated with a specific gene promoter region under various conditions can be achieved through a ChIP-PCR assay, while the recruitment of methylated H3-K9 to the promoters on a genome-wide scale can be detected by ChIP-on-chip or ChIP-sequencing. ChIP analysis requires that ChIPed DNA contains minimal background in order to reliably identify true TF-enriched regions. High background in ChIP is mainly caused ineffective wash buffers, insufficient cross-link reversal, inappropriate DNA fragment length, and residual RNA interference. To effectively capture TF/DNA complexes, which are often in low abundance, an ideal ChIP method requires having maximum sensitivity with minimized background levels. This method should also be able to enrich highly abundant protein/DNA complexes using a small amount of cells or tissues in a high throughput format. The High-Sensitivity ChIP Kit is designed to achieve these goals by maximizing sensitivity and minimizing non-specific background signals.