Positional distribution of transcription factor binding sites in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Binding of a transcription factor (TF) to its DNA binding sites (TFBSs) is a critical step to initiate the transcription of its target genes. It is therefore interesting to know where the TFBSs of a gene are likely to locate in the promoter region. Here we studied the positional distribution of TFBSs in Arabidopsis thaliana, for which many known TFBSs are now available. We developed a method to identify the locations of TFBSs in the promoter sequences of genes in A. thaliana. We found that the distribution is nearly bell-shaped with a peak at 50 base pairs (bp) upstream of the transcription start site (TSS) and 86% of the TFBSs are in the region from -1,000 bp to +200 bp with respect to the TSS. Our distribution was supported by chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing and microarray data and DNase I hypersensitive site sequencing data. When TF families were considered separately, differences in positional preference were observed between TF families. Our study of the positional distribution of TFBSs seems to be the first in a plant.
Biotechnology Center, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.
Chun-Ping
CP
Yu
Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.|Bioinformatics Program, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.|Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan.
Jinn-Jy
JJ
Lin
Biotechnology Center, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.|Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.|Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago 60637, USA.
Wen-Hsiung
WH
Li
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001665:Binding Sites; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D024363:Transcription Initiation Site
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D018744:DNA, Plant; D014157:Transcription Factors