 The need for insulators arises where two adjacent genes on a chromosome have very different transcription patterns; it is critical that the inducing or repressing mechanisms of one do not interfere with the neighbouring gene.Insulators have also been found to cluster at the boundaries of topologically associating domains (TADs) and may have a role in partitioning the genome into "chromosome neighborhoods" - genomic regions within which regulation occurs.Some insulators can act as both enhancer blocker and barriers, and some just have one of the two functions.