The regulation of gene expression is at the core of many important biological processes such as embryonic development, cell growth, cell differentiation or adaptation to the extracellular environment. Gene regulation can occur on different levels for instance transcription, translation, post-translational modifications etc. By far the most commonly used is the regulation at the transcription level, whereby Transcription Factors bind DNA regulatory elements, and either activate or repress transcription. In the post-genome era, characterization and identification of DNA regulatory elements have become the most critical and challenging tasks
in molecular biology. DNA regulatory elements in the promoter region consist of Transcription Factor Binding Site (TFBS) . Within this study, I search for TFBS in promoter regions of developmental genes. In order to distinguish a functional from a non-functional TFBS, phylogenetic footprints is used. This is achieved by comparing related species exploting fully their evolutionary relationships and incorporating evolutionary properties of TFBS. Genes are then grouped based on the existence of the same TFBS and the similarity of their expression patterns calculated. From the results, I discovered gene groups that show correlation between TFBSs and vertebrates’ expression patterns. |