Whole genome promoter mapping – Human Genome Project v2.0?
Study marks first step in decoding gene regulatory logic
Investigators from the University California, San Diego (UCSD) Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and NimbleGen Systems have developed an efficient method to identify thousands of regulatory sequences in the human genome, according to a study published today in Nature.
Genes are defined by their ability to generate a functional product. Thus the promoter – a DNA sequence that controls when and where a gene product is generated – is the critical element that distinguishes a gene from junk DNA. Using a set of NimbleGens DNA microarrays that represent the entire human genome, the team was able to track critical proteins binding to each genes promoter to identify 10,567 active promoters, 6 091 of which were previously unknown.
LICRs Dr. Bing Ren, the senior author of the study and a faculty member at the UCSD School of Medicine, says that although scientists have found most of the protein-coding genes in the human genome, their control sequences have been elusive until now. “Promoters are a type of genetic switch that turn gene expression on or off. If we know where the promoters are, we can study how the genetic switches work in a cell, and investigate their connection to human diseases,” said Dr. Ren, who is also a member of the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center. He and his colleagues have made the data freely available on online public databases.
Dr. Robert Strausberg, Vice-President of Human Genomic Medicine at the J. Craig Venter Institute, says that this understanding is vital for determining the genetic causes of, and possible genomic solutions for, diseases such as cancer. “Medicine is increasingly turning towards the idea of using genetic markers for diagnosis and prognosis, or determining personalized therapies, so-called pharmacogenetics, but we dont know how these genes are regulated or even related to each other. The identification of such a large number of promoters means that we can begin to answer these sorts of questions.”
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.licr.orgAll latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry
Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.
Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.
Newest articles
Memory Self-Test via Smartphone
… Can Identify Early Signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Dedicated memory tests on smartphones enable the detection of “mild cognitive impairment”, a condition that may indicate Alzheimer’s disease, with high accuracy….
The Sound of the Perfect Coating
Fraunhofer IWS Transfers Laser-based Sound Analysis of Surfaces into Industrial Practice with “LAwave”. Sound waves can reveal surface properties. Parameters such as surface or coating quality of components can be…
Customized silicon chips
…from Saxony for material characterization of printed electronics. How efficient are new materials? Does changing the properties lead to better conductivity? The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS develops and…