title: Recent advances in functional assays of transcriptional enhancers.
abstract: In this special edition of Genomics, we present reviews of the current state of the field in identifying and functionally understanding transcriptional enhancers in cells and developing tissues. Typically several enhancers coordinate the expression of an individual target gene, each controlling that gene's expression in specific cell types at specific times. Until recently, identifying each gene's enhancers had been challenging because enhancers do not occupy prescribed locations relative to their target genes. Recently there have been powerful advances in DNA sequencing and other technologies that make it possible to identify the majority of enhancers in virtually any cell type of interest. The reviews in this edition of Genomics highlight some of these new and powerful approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States. Electronic address: cbabbitt@bio.umass.edu.
authors.forename: Courtney C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Babbitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, United States.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Markstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, United States.
authors.forename: Jesse M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D019295:Computational Biology; D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D023281:Genomics; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
keywords: Cis-regulatory elements; Enhancers; FIREWACh; MPRA; STARR-Seq; TRIP