Currently, there are two main types of silencers in DNA, which are the classical silencer element and the non-classical negative regulatory element (NRE). In classical silencers, the gene is actively repressed by the silencer element, mostly by interfering with general transcription factor (GTF) assembly. NREs passively repress the gene, usually by inhibiting other elements that are upstream of the gene. Of the NREs, there are certain silencers that are orientation-dependent meaning that the binding factor binds in a particular direction relative to other sequences. Promoter-dependent silencers are understood to be silencer elements because they are position and orientation-dependent but must also use a promoter-specific factor. There has been a recent discovery of Polycomb-group Response Elements (PREs), which can allow and inhibit repression depending on the protein bound to it, and the presence of non-coding transcription.