Type I collagen, the most abundant protein of the body, is preferentially synthesized in bone, dermis, and tendons by two cell types, the osteoblast and the fibroblast. The expression of type I collagen is increased in the various forms of fibrosis such as lung, liver, bone marrow fibrosis and scleroderma. Type I collagen is a heterotrimer molecule consisting of two alpha 1(I) chains and one al...

Transcriptional regulation of LMW glutenin genes were investigated in-silico, using publicly available gene sequences and expression data. Genes were grouped into different LMW glutenin types and their promoter profiles were determined using cis-acting regulatory elements databases and published results. The various cis-acting elements belong to some conserved non-coding regulatory regions (CRE...

Maintenance of high-level transgene expression is the main challenge in current gene therapy. Although the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter/enhancer or its derivative the CAG promoter has been harnessed in current gene therapy vectors, transgene expression by these vectors is often transient and remains at suboptimal levels due to undefined mechanisms, possibly including the shortage of transcrip...

Cystic Fibrosis results from mutation of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. The gene was identified in 1989, but more than 20 years later, the regulatory mechanisms controlling its complex expression are still not fully understood. Though the promoter binds transcription factors and drives some aspects of CFTR gene expression, it cannot alone account for tissue...

PlantCARE is a database of plant cis-acting regulatory elements, enhancers and repressors. Regulatory elements are represented by positional matrices, consensus sequences and individual sites on particular promoter sequences. Links to the EMBL, TRANSFAC and MEDLINE databases are provided when available. Data about the transcription sites are extracted mainly from the literature, supplemented wi...

Identification of regulatory elements and their target genes is complicated by the fact that regulatory elements can act over large genomic distances. Identification of long-range acting elements is particularly important in the case of disease genes as mutations in these elements can result in human disease. It is becoming increasingly clear that long-range control of gene expression is facili...

The Raf kinase inhibitory protein (RKIP) is down-regulated in multiple types of human cancers. Decreased RKIP transcription activity may be one of the major mechanisms responsible for the downregulation of RKIP expression in human diseases. To test this hypothesis, we need to gain basic knowledge of the transcriptional regulation of RKIP. To achieve this objective, we made a systematic effort t...

Federal appellate judges cite cases by sister circuits. Why is that? Common wisdom holds that judges look to out-of-circuit cases for credible legal arguments -as persuasive precedent. But hard-core adherents of the attitudinal model (Segal and Spaeth 2002) – and certain cynical realists and critical legal studies scholars – might argue that judges decide in accordance with their policy or poli...

We mapped cis-acting regulatory elements in the HLA-DR alpha gene, which encodes the monomorphic subunit of the HLA-DR heterodimer. Genomic fragments of HLA-DR alpha were placed 5' or 3' to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene, the transcription of which was initiated from the Herpes simplex thymidine kinase promoter. In transient expression assays, fragments from the body of the...