Bioinformatics Analysis of Regulatory Sites in Genomic DNA Sequences

基因表达受许多调控位点和机制的控制，其中许多还不清楚或研究得很少。调控位点比基因更难预测和研究，因为它们在进化过程中比编码区更短、更易变、变化更快。将使用来自广泛物种的基因组DNA序列对短调控位点进行比较分析，包括原核顺式调控位点。该项目将根据序列数据的固有统计特性和跨物种的序列保守性，开发新的预测地点的方法，使用密切相关物种的序列来改进预测。这些方法将应用于多种细菌、植物和动物基因组，结果将通过网站提供，并以新软件和数据库的形式提供给社区。这项研究将提供对不同基因组中调控位点的比较特征的见解，并可用于改进基因预测软件。

Gene expression is governed by a number of regulatory sites and mechanisms, many of which are still unknown or poorly studied. Regulatory sites are more difficult to predict and study than genes, because they are short, variable, and change faster than coding regions during evolution. A comparative analysis of short regulatory sites, including prokaryotic cis-regulatory sites, will be performed using the genomic DNA sequences from a wide range of species. The project will develop new methods for predicting sites based on inherent statistical properties of sequence data and on conservation of sequence across species, using the sequences of closely related species to improve prediction. These methods will be applied to multiple bacterial, plant, and animal genomes and the results made available via a website as well as available to the community in the form of the new software and databases. The research will provide insights into comparative characteristic of regulatory sites in different genomes and can also be used to improve gene prediction software.