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An analysis of “Alignments anchored on genomic landmarks can aid in the identification of regulatory elements” by Kannan Tharakaraman et al. Sarah Aerni July 8, 2005. Gene Regulation. Transcription factors Cis-acting elements
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An analysis of “Alignments anchored on genomic landmarks can aid in the identification of regulatory elements” by Kannan Tharakaraman et al. Sarah Aerni July 8, 2005
Gene Regulation • Transcription factors • Cis-acting elements • Gene expression is regulated by gene itself (gene acts upon itself) • Trans-acting elements • Gene expression is regulated by other genes (gene inhibits another)
Gene Regulation US Department of Energy Office of Science
Motifs • Binding sites • Transcription factors • Zinc Finger • Hard to identify • Relatively short sequences • Some indices well conserved • Usually localized in certain proximity of the gene
Enumerative Methods Align sequences, usually use orthologous genes Depends on local alignments Cannot be too similar or too distant Alignment Methods Create w-mers and find over-represented motifs Frequency may be misconstrued due to repeats Techniques to Identify Regulatory Elements • Tharakaraman Technique • Combine both methods • Include word placement with frequency – is the location of Cis-Regulatory regions correlated?
Initial Steps • Mask repeats • Avoid identifying repeats as motifs • Maintain one position for possible motifs • Align Transcription Start Site (TSS) • Depend on proximity to TSS • Allow for slight shifts – look for clusters
Define Significance • Alignment scores • Assign significance using gap penalties from Mock Set • Jittering – watch for overrepresented octonucleotides • ρ = 5 determined to be significant without jittering
TRANSFAC • Database of Eukaryotic Transcriptional Regulatory Elements • Comparison of TRANSFAC octonucleotides to those identified by paper’s technique
GLAM • Sequence input • Every sequence arbitrary position and window size chosen • Gapless multiple alignment in window sequences • Uses probability to determine whether windows are repositioned or resized (Gibbs Sampling) • “seed” constraints • OOPS (1 occurrence per sequence) • ZOOPS(0 or 1 occurrence per sequence)
Alignment Techniques • Different techniques show different results • A-GLAM determined to be best • Compare to TRANSFAC • AlignACE cannot function computationally at genomic scale
Distance to TSS • Cis-acting element locations determined by blocks • Largest number close to 0 (TSS) • Identified element correlated with TRANSFAC
Further Discussion • Discussion is limited to method results • Little information given on whether location is truly correlated • No Biological discussion • Proximity of TSS and Cis-Acting binding sites • Narrow search range to a smaller field • Use in identification of types of element?