Question

To follow up on the microarray data you generated on non-melanoma skin cancer tumors, you want to determine whether the Myc transcription factor binds to the promoters of the genes you identified in your microarray. You decide to perform a ChIP assay.

To which portion(s) of the genome would you design PCR primers in order to perform this experiment? Make sure to include primers for both a positive and negative control.

Answer 1

PCR primers for a ChIP assay to determine Myc binding should target the promoter regions of genes identified in a microarray study on skin cancer. I

Step-by-step explanation:

To investigate whether the Myc transcription factor binds to the promoters of genes identified in your microarray data on non-melanoma skin cancer tumors, you should design PCR primers for the ChIP assay targeting the promoter regions of the genes of interest. These regions are typically upstream of the gene's transcription start site and are the likely binding sites for transcription factors. For a positive control, you should select a known Myc target gene, ensuring that your selected region does include a binding site for Myc. Conversely, for a negative control, you would design primers for a region of the genome known not to bind Myc or any other transcription factors, such as a non-regulatory region or a region of DNA that is not associated with gene expression.

It's important to note that the success of ChIP assays also depends on the antibodies used for precipitating the Myc protein-DNA complex and the efficiency of the PCR in amplifying the potentially bound regions.