Statistical methods in gene regulation.
Michele Caselle
Abstract
One of the most interesting open problems in modern biology is the characterization of the network of regulatory interactions between genes. A dominant role in this web of interactions is played by the mechanism of transcriptional regulation, in which one or more gene products regulate the transcription of other genes into mRNA, by binding to recognition motifs (short DNA sequences) generally located upstream of the coding region of the regulated gene. A key step in the study of transcriptional regulation is the identification of such recognition motifs. After a short introduction on the organization of Eukaryotes genomes and on the mechanism of gene regulation we present a novel computational method for the identification of these regulatory motifs. We apply our method first to the yeast genome (which is simpler and can be used as validation test) and then in the human case. Several known motifs are correctly recognized by our algorithm, and a few new candidates are suggested for experimental verification.
Elenco dei partecipanti al convegno di Bari.