Revolutionary Technique Provides Unprecedented View of Gene Regulation in 3D Genome.

MIT researchers have developed a new technique called Region Capture Micro-C (RCMC) that can map the interactions between regulatory elements and genes in the 3D genome with 100 times higher resolution than previously possible. The researchers found that many genes interact with dozens of different regulatory elements, and that DNA appears to coil itself into nested “microcompartments” that facilitate these interactions. The new method is able to inexpensively generate maps 100 times richer in information than other published techniques for a fraction of the cost.