Protein Chips and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation - Emerging Technologies to Study Macromolecule Interactions in M-grisea

In the post genome era, a major challenge is to understand the transcriptional control of each gene and the network of interactions control growth, development, and differentiation. The genome sequence of many fungi is now available, as are growing data sets of large-scale transcriptional studies. Microarray analysis reveals that specific sets of genes are coordinately regulated, presumably via the action of largely uncharacterized transcription factors. Those studies provide a clue to the function of co-regulated genes as well a means to categorize groups of genes. However, the ultimate objective is to be able to model the underlying pattern of associations that provides the transcriptional control. The finished genome assembly has allowed us to annotate a relatively complete list of proteins associated with transcription initiation and/or regulation. Using emerging technologies initially designed to study humans and model systems like yeast, we can now identify protein interactions that lead to transcription factor regulation as well as reveal the specific nucleotide binding sites for any DNA binding protein. Specifically, using protein chips and ChIP-chip studies, we can begin to examine transcriptional circuits that regulate the infection and development processes in this important plant pathogen.