footprinting ultraviolet (uv) footprinting MI:1191 orchard Ultraviolet irradiation excites nucleic acids and creates photoreactions, which results in damaged bases in the DNA strand. Protein bound regions of the DNA are protected. UV footprinting technique can detect sequence-specific protein-DNA interactions in vivo. Protein contacts can inhibit of enhance UV photoproduct formation by affecting the ability of DNA to adopt a geometry necessary for the formation of a UV photoproduct. Thus, differences in the strand-breakage patterns of protein-free and protein-bound DNA can be used to detect protein-DNA contacts. 2012-06-07T03:13:02Z PSI-MI