Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay

The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), also known as a gel shift or band shift assay, is a laboratory technique used to detect and characterize interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. The method exploits the fact that a protein bound to a DNA or RNA fragment migrates more slowly through a non-dena…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 3 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 1× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2575-7881 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), also known as a gel shift or band shift assay, is a laboratory technique used to detect and characterize interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. The method exploits the fact that a protein bound to a DNA or RNA fragment migrates more slowly through a non-denaturing gel than the free nucleic acid. By incubating a labeled DNA or RNA probe with a protein sample and resolving the mixture by electrophoresis, researchers can visualize a shifted band that indicates complex formation. Variations of the assay, including competition with unlabeled probes and the use of specific antibodies in a supershift, allow the binding to be quantified and the bound protein to be identified. EMSA is widely applied to study transcription factors, regulatory proteins, and RNA-binding proteins, helping to map the sequences and conditions that govern gene expression and RNA processing. DNA And RNA Research, the OpenAccessPub journal hosting this page, publishes peer-reviewed, open-access research on nucleic acid structure, function, and regulation. This page gathers open-access scholarship relevant to the electrophoretic mobility shift assay and the study of protein-nucleic acid interactions.

Research published in this journal

3 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 3 articles above have been cited 1 time in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Oct 2025.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in DNA And RNA Research (ISSN 2575-7881).

Journal editorial board
jianhui zhang · United States Masayoshi Yamaguchi · United States Li Mao · United States

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.