We show here that the in vivo methylation-based tagging technique DamID (DNA 
adenine methyltransferase identification) can be used for studies of DNA-protein 
interactions or chromatin profiling in plants. We have demonstrated the 
feasibility, reproducibility and sensitivity of the method in Arabidopsis 
thaliana, using the well-known yeast GAL4 transcription factor, for which 
DNA-binding sites (UAS(G)) were introduced into the plant genome. We monitored 
the methylation resulting from the activity of DNA adenine methyltransferase 
fused to the protein of interest, by combining digestion with 
methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes and quantitative PCR. We then used 
DamID to identify genomic targets of LHP1, a protein mostly associated with 
euchromatin. We showed that LHP1 was targeted to the promoter and transcribed 
regions of four genes: AG, AP3, FT and PI. Our data also demonstrate that LHP1, 
like its animal homologues, has a high binding affinity for A/T-rich regions, 
binding particularly strongly to the large regulatory introns of AG and PI. We 
identified three major characteristics of LHP1 binding, highlighting the 
similarities between plant LHP1 and animal HP1 proteins.