Since the early 1960s, imaging studies of Drosophila sp. polytene chromosomes have provided unique views of gene transcription in vivo. The dramatic changes in chromatin structure that accompany gene activation can be visualized as chromosome puffs. Now, live-cell imaging techniques coupled with protein–DNA crosslinking assays on a genome-wide scale allow more detailed mechanistic questions to be addressed and are prompting the re-evaluation of models of transcription regulation in both Drosophila and mammals.

1. Molecular Biology and Genetics, 416 Biotechnology Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

Correspondence to: Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to D.L. (Email: jtl10@cornell.edu).

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