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Review
. 2020 Jul;295(4):825-835.
doi: 10.1007/s00438-020-01675-9. Epub 2020 Apr 15.

Pioneer factors and their in vitro identification methods

Xinyang Yu  1 , Michael J Buck  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Pioneer factors and their in vitro identification methods

Xinyang Yu et al. Mol Genet Genomics. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Pioneer transcription factors are a special group of transcription factors that can interact with nucleosomal DNA and initiate regulatory events. Their binding to regulatory regions is the first event in gene activation and can occur in silent or heterochromatin regions. Several research groups have endeavored to define pioneer factors and study their binding characteristics using various techniques. In this review, we describe the in vitro methods used to define and characterize pioneer factors, paying particular attention to differences in methodologies and how these differences can affect results.

Keywords: Binding assays; Nucleosomes; Pioneer factors; Transcription factors.

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