title: Mapping the Function of Polycomb Proteins.
abstract: Polycomb group (PcG) proteins are master regulators of proliferation and development that play essential roles in human pathologies including cancers. PcGs act as gatekeepers of cellular identity, maintaining repression of a multitude of target genes. However, these properties have only been recently uncovered thanks to technological advances, first of all chromatin immunoprecipitations (ChIP), that allowed a systematic characterization of the activity of these factors in an unbiased manner at a genome-wide level. Using PcG protein as example, this chapter introduces the readers to the use of chromatin analysis (ChIP assays and replication timing) and how to move these approaches to a level of genome-wide interpretation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Via Adamello 16, 20139, Milan, Italy. diego.pasini@ieo.eu.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pasini
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D002843:Chromatin / Q000235:genetics*; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation / Q000379:methods*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods*; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins
keywords: ChIP; Chromatin; Next-generation sequencing; Polycomb; Replication