Medical Definition of Footprinting
1.
A technique used to identify the binding site of, for example: a protein on a nucleic acid sequence.
The basic principle is to carry out a very limited hydrolysis of the DNA with or without the protein complexed and then to compare the digestion products. If a cleavage site is masked by the bound protein then the pattern of fragments when protein is present will be different and it is possible to work out, by a series of such procedures, exactly where the protein binds.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Footprinting
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