Genome-wide Mapping of Cellular Protein-RNA Interactions Enabled by Chemical Crosslinking

RNA-protein interactions influence many biological processes. Identifying the binding sites of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) remains one of the most fundamental and important chal-lenges to the studies of such interactions. Capturing RNA and RBPs via chemical crosslinking allows stringent purification procedures that significantly remove the non-specific RNA and protein interactions. Two major types of chemical crosslinking strategies have been developed to date, i.e., UV-enabled crosslinking and enzymatic mechanism-based covalent capture. In this review, we com-pare such strategies and their current applications, with an emphasis on the technologies themselves rather than the biology that has been revealed. We hope such methods could benefit broader audi-ence and also urge for the development of new methods to study RNA RBP interactions.