Electro-mobility shift-assays (or gel retardation assays) are a standard way of assessing TF-binding. A fragment of DNA of interest is amplified and labeled with a fluorophore. The fragment is left to incubate in a solution containing abundant TF and non-specific DNA (e.g. randomly cleaved DNA from salmon sperm, of all things) and then a gel is run with the incubated sample and a control (sample that has not been in contact with the TF). If the TF has bound the sample, the complex will migrate more slowly than unbound DNA through the gel, and this retarded band can be used as evidence of binding. The unspecific DNA ensures that the binding is specific to the fragment of interest and that any non-specific DNA-binding proteins left-over in the TF purification will bind there, instead of on the fragment of interest. EMSAs are typically carried out in a bunch of fragments, shown as multiple double (control+experiment) lanes in a wide picture. Certain additional controls are run in at least one of the fragments to ascertain specificity. In the most basic of these, specific competitor (the fragment of interest or a known positive control, unlabelled) is added to the reaction. This should sequester the TF and hence make the retardation band disappear, proving that the binding is indeed specific

This is a technique used to detect typically mRNA with greater precision than Northern blot or RT-PCR. Therefore, it is commonly used to assess gene expression (specifically transcription), even though it is a protection experiment. In S1 nuclease protection, extracted RNA is hybridized with complementary DNA probes and expose to S1 nuclease to degrade all RNA that is not bound to probes. The remaining (non-degraded) RNA is typically run on a gel to detect the size (and label) of the probe and determine which RNA it is.

Visual inspection of promoter region to identify putative binding sites based on previous knowledge