Functional characterization of motif sequences under purifying selection.

ABSTRACT: Diverse life forms are driven by the evolution of gene regulatory programs including changes in regulator proteins and cis-regulatory elements. Alterations of cis-regulatory elements are likely to dominate the evolution of the gene regulatory networks, as they are subjected to smaller selective constraints compared with proteins and hence may evolve quickly to adapt the environment. Prior studies on cis-regulatory element evolution focus primarily on sequence substitutions of known transcription factor-binding motifs. However, evolutionary models for the dynamics of motif occurrence are relatively rare, and comprehensive characterization of the evolution of all possible motif sequences has not been pursued. In the present study, we propose an algorithm to estimate the strength of purifying

SUBMITTER: Chen DH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3575792 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature