Identification of non-coding conserved motifs and their relationships with polymorphism

通过基因组序列比对，我们已经确定了许多在哺乳动物物种中保守的非编码基序。对于这些基序，我们主要关注调控剪接的顺式调控元件。作为结果，我们揭示了存在一个网络的顺式调控元件，以实现复杂的选择性剪接调控。将这一方法扩展到鉴定转录因子结合位点，并分析这些基序与单核苷酸多态(SNPs)之间的关系仍在进行中。在这项研究项目中开发的计算环境和程序应该会促进这些分析在未来的进一步进展。

By using genome sequence alignments, We have identified many non-coding motifs that are conserved among mammalian species. For these motifs, we mainly focused on the cis-regulatory elements that regulate splicing. As the results, we revealed the existence of a network of cis-regulatory elements to achieve complicated regulations of alternative splicing. Extending this methodology to the identification of transcription factor binding sites, and to analyze the relationships between these motifs and single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) are still under way. The computational environments and programs developed in this research project should facilitate further progress of these analyses in future.