Profiling Protein–DNA Interactions by Chromatin Immunoprecipitation in Arabidopsis

In plant cells, transcription factors play an important role in the regulation of gene expression, which eventually leads to the formation of complex phenotypes. Although chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) involves a lengthy process that requires up to 4 days to complete, it is a powerful technique to investigate the interactions between transcription factors and their target sequences in vivo. Here, we describe a detailed ChIP protocol, focusing on ChIP-qPCR, from material collection to data analyses. Moreover, we explain multiple checkpoints for the quality control of ChIP-qPCR data to ensure the success of this protocol. As this protocol is robust, it can be adapted to other plant materials and plant species, and it can be used for genome-wide profiling experiments, including ChIP-chip and ChIP-seq analyses. We believe that our ChIP-qPCR protocol facilitates research on the interactions between plant transcription factors and their target sequences in vivo.