Interactions of DNA and proteins: Electrophoretic mobility shift assay in asthma

Abstract

Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) are used to characterize interactions between nucleic acids and proteins in native conditions. This is based on the fact that the electrophoretic mobility of a nucleic acid becomes slower when it forms complexes with proteins. There are many different variants and applications of this methodology. In this chapter we describe a detailed EMSA protocol applied to the study of asthma.