Genome-wide mapping of allele-specific protein-DNA interactions in human cells

We describe a high-throughput method, named ChIP-SNP, for the identification of allele-specific protein-DNA interactions throughout the human genome. ChIP-SNP combines chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping microarray analysis. We demonstrated that it can be used to accurately identify allele-specific binding of RNA polymerase II (RNAP) in the human fibroblast genome, uncovering imprinted genes and other allele-specific binding events. ChIP-SNP will facilitate the study of mechanisms of allele-specific gene expression.