Genomic targets of the human c-Myc protein

The transcription factor Myc is induced by mitogenic signals and regulates downstream cellular responses. If overexpressed, Myc promotes malignant transformation. Myc modulates expression of diverse genes in experimental systems, but few are proven direct targets. Here, we present a large-scale screen for genomic Myc-binding sites in live human cells. We used bioinformatics to select consensus DNA elements (CACGTG or E-boxes) situated in the 5' regulatory region of genes and measured Myc binding to those sequences in vivo by quantitative chromatin immunoprecipitation. Strikingly, most promoter-associated E-boxes showed selective recovery with Myc, unlike non-E-box promoters or E-boxes in bulk genomic DNA.…