Statistical Mechanics Approach to DNA Promoter Prediction

DNA 启动子预测的统计力学方法

• 批准号: 0708421
• 负责人: Zoi Rapti
• 金额: $ 8.54万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0708421&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Statistical; Mechanics; Approach; DNA; Promoter

The objective of this project is the development of an efficient method for the prediction of the location of promoter regions in any given DNA sequence. Promoters are regulatory regions of DNA providing a control point for gene transcription, and in eukaryotes, they are very diverse and difficult to characterize. It has been demonstrated that their location is associated with regions along the DNA sequence where there is high probability for the hydrogen bonds to be stretched. Among the problems that will be addressed in this project is the extension of the currently used models of the DNA double helix to account for the heterogeneity and other relevant structural properties of DNA sequences, and the study of the spectrum of integral operators involved in the calculation of the thermodynamical properties of such sequences.The proposed course of study has as ultimate goal the development of a methodology that will allow the fast and reliable analysis of very long DNA sequences. This is crucial, because, on one hand, there is evidence that many diseases, e.g., asthma, are associated with promoter elements and on the other hand, the controlled regulation of genes represents a powerful therapeutic approach. Once such a method has been tested on already studied sequences, it will be possible to make it available to scientists in the biological disciplines, and to use it in the design of experiments.

该项目的目标是开发一种有效的方法，用于预测任何给定DNA序列中启动子区域的位置。启动子是DNA的调节区域，为基因转录提供控制点，并且在真核生物中，它们非常多样并且难以表征。已经证明它们的位置与沿着DNA序列的沿着区域相关，在这些区域中氢键被拉伸的可能性很高。该项目将解决的问题之一是扩展目前使用的DNA双螺旋模型，以解释DNA序列的异质性和其他相关结构特性，和研究的频谱的积分算子参与计算的化学性质的序列。拟议的研究过程中有作为最终目标的发展的方法，将允许快速、可靠地分析超长DNA序列。这是至关重要的，因为，一方面，有证据表明，许多疾病，例如，哮喘与启动子元件有关，另一方面，基因的受控调节代表了一种强有力的治疗方法。一旦这种方法在已经研究过的序列上得到测试，就有可能提供给生物学科的科学家，并将其用于实验设计。