A central issue in molecular biology is understanding the regulatory mechanisms that control gene expression. The availability of whole genome sequences opens the way for computational methods to search for the key elements in transcription regulation. These include methods for discovering the binding sites of DNA-binding proteins, such as transcription factors. A common representation of trans...

wheat is a crop with spring and winter types and wide adaptability to different climate conditions. the wide adaptability of wheat is mainly controlled by three groups of genetic factors and among them vernalization (vrn) genes play pivotal role in determining spring and winter types. in this study, 395 iranian wheat landraces were characterized with specific primer pairs designed based on vrn-...

objective: runt-related transcription factor 2 (runx2) and osterix (osx) as two specific osteoblast transcription factors and distal-less homeobox 5 (dlx5) as a non-specific one are of paramount importance in regulating osteoblast related genes including osteocalcin, bone sialoprotein (bsp), osteopontin and collagen type iα1. the present study sets out to investigate whether epigenetic regulati...

Background: Tumor necrosis factor-beta or lymphotoxin-alpha (LT-α), IL-4 and IL-10 are determining factors in immunity against BCG.  Allelic polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of their genes affect the rate of cytokine production and therefore, the host’s ability in BCG containment. Objective: To study the prevalence of –590 (C/T) and –592 (C/A) allelic distribution of IL-4 and IL-10 promo...

patA expression is induced 3 to 6 h after nitrogen step-down. We establish that the transcription of patA is under the positive control of NtcA. The patA promoter region shows two conserved NtcA-binding boxes. These NtcA-binding sites and their interaction with NtcA are key elements for patA expression in heterocysts.

Formation of the neural network requires concerted action of multiple axon guidance systems. How neurons orchestrate expression of multiple guidance genes is poorly understood. Here, we show that Drosophila T-box protein Midline controls expression of genes encoding components of two major guidance systems: Frazzled, ROBO, and Slit. In midline mutant, expression of all these molecules are reduc...

PromEC is an updated compilation of Escherichia coli mRNA promoter sequences. It includes documentation on the location of experimentally identified mRNA transcriptional start sites on the E. coli chromosome, as well as the actual sequences in the promoter region. The database was updated as of July 2000 and includes 472 entries. PromEC is accessible at http://bioinfo.md.huji.ac. il/marg/promec

Topological entropy is one of the most difficult entropies to be used to analyze the DNA sequences, due to the finite sample and high-dimensionality problems. In order to overcome these problems, a generalized topological entropy is introduced. The relationship between the topological entropy and the generalized topological entropy is compared, which shows the topological entropy is a special c...