Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the important goals in the post-genomic era is to determine the regulatory elements within the non-coding DNA of a given organism's genome. The identification of functional <it>cis</it>-regulatory modules has...

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Main Authors: Rajewsky Nikolaus, Emberly Eldon, Siggia Eric D
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2003-11-01
Series:BMC Bioinformatics
Online Access:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/4/57
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author Rajewsky Nikolaus
Emberly Eldon
Siggia Eric D
author_facet Rajewsky Nikolaus
Emberly Eldon
Siggia Eric D
author_sort Rajewsky Nikolaus
collection DOAJ
description <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the important goals in the post-genomic era is to determine the regulatory elements within the non-coding DNA of a given organism's genome. The identification of functional <it>cis</it>-regulatory modules has proven difficult since the component factor binding sites are small and the rules governing their arrangement are poorly understood. However, the genomes of suitably diverged species help to predict regulatory elements based on the generally accepted assumption that conserved blocks of genomic sequence are likely to be functional. To judge the efficacy of strategies that prefilter by sequence conservation it is important to know to what extent the converse assumption holds, namely that functional elements common to both species will fall within these conserved blocks. The recently completed sequence of a second Drosophila species provides an opportunity to test this assumption for one of the experimentally best studied regulatory networks in multicellular organisms, the body patterning of the fly embryo.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that 50%–70% of known binding sites reside in conserved sequence blocks, but these percentages are not greatly enriched over what is expected by chance. Finally, a computational genome-wide search in both species for regulatory modules based on clusters of binding sites suggests that genes central to the regulatory network are consistently recovered.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate that binding sites remain clustered for these "core modules" while not necessarily residing in conserved blocks. This is an important clue as to how regulatory information is encoded in the genome and how modules evolve.</p>
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spelling doaj.art-7e7aab52634c42b0933d6fbc201280992022-12-22T01:02:52ZengBMCBMC Bioinformatics1471-21052003-11-01415710.1186/1471-2105-4-57Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of DrosophilaRajewsky NikolausEmberly EldonSiggia Eric D<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the important goals in the post-genomic era is to determine the regulatory elements within the non-coding DNA of a given organism's genome. The identification of functional <it>cis</it>-regulatory modules has proven difficult since the component factor binding sites are small and the rules governing their arrangement are poorly understood. However, the genomes of suitably diverged species help to predict regulatory elements based on the generally accepted assumption that conserved blocks of genomic sequence are likely to be functional. To judge the efficacy of strategies that prefilter by sequence conservation it is important to know to what extent the converse assumption holds, namely that functional elements common to both species will fall within these conserved blocks. The recently completed sequence of a second Drosophila species provides an opportunity to test this assumption for one of the experimentally best studied regulatory networks in multicellular organisms, the body patterning of the fly embryo.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that 50%–70% of known binding sites reside in conserved sequence blocks, but these percentages are not greatly enriched over what is expected by chance. Finally, a computational genome-wide search in both species for regulatory modules based on clusters of binding sites suggests that genes central to the regulatory network are consistently recovered.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate that binding sites remain clustered for these "core modules" while not necessarily residing in conserved blocks. This is an important clue as to how regulatory information is encoded in the genome and how modules evolve.</p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/4/57
spellingShingle Rajewsky Nikolaus
Emberly Eldon
Siggia Eric D
Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila
BMC Bioinformatics
title Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila
title_full Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila
title_fullStr Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila
title_full_unstemmed Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila
title_short Conservation of regulatory elements between two species of Drosophila
title_sort conservation of regulatory elements between two species of drosophila
url http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/4/57
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