title: Motif comparison based on similarity of binding affinity profiles.
abstract: Measuring motif similarity is essential for identifying functionally related transcription factors (TFs) and RNA-binding proteins, and for annotating de novo motifs. Here, we describe Motif Similarity Based on Affinity of Targets (MoSBAT), an approach for measuring the similarity of motifs by computing their affinity profiles across a large number of random sequences. We show that MoSBAT successfully associates de novo ChIP-seq motifs with their respective TFs, accurately identifies motifs that are obtained from the same TF in different in vitro assays, and quantitatively reflects the similarity of in vitro binding preferences for pairs of TFs.
  
  
  
  MoSBAT is available as a webserver at mosbat.ccbr.utoronto.ca, and for download at github.com/csglab/MoSBAT.
  
  
  
  t.hughes@utoronto.ca or hamed.najafabadi@mcgill.caSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada.
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.affiliation: Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Mihai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albu
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3E1, Canada.|Canadian Institutes for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8, Canada.
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.affiliation: McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, Montreal, QC H3A 0G1, Canada.|Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada.
authors.forename: Hamed S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Najafabadi
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D011485:Protein Binding; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein / Q000379:methods*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors