Integrative Analysis of the Regulatory Region of the FGFR3 Oncogene

The study of transcriptional regulation often needs the integration of diverse yet independent data. In the present work, sequence conservation, prediction of transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) and gene expression analysis have been applied to the detection of putative transcription factor (TF) modules in the regulatory region of the FGFR3 oncogene. Several TFs with conserved binding sites in the FGFR3 regulatory region have shown high positive or negative correlation with FGFR3 expression both in urothelial carcinoma and in benign nevi. By means of conserved TF cluster analysis, two different TF modules have been identified in the promoter and first intron of FGFR3 gene. These modules contain activating AP2, E2F, E47 and SP1 binding sites plus motifs for EGR with possible repressor function.