PNNL

Abstract

The DNA sequences of organisms are becoming available at an increasing rate and the biological information derived from the genome sequence data has been proven to be very useful in improving our understanding of cellular regulatory patterns. Detection of transcription factor binding sites in the promoter regions of genes helps to identify the potential regulons of transcriptional regulators, and this information can be used to establish the regulatory networks of organisms. In this study, we apply a motif pattern searching technique to detect the possible DNA binding sites in the intergenic upstream sequences of the genes of a bacterium, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, to investigate the interplay between the three known transcription factors. In contrast to PpsR and FnrL, we find that the PrrA acts as a global regulator in controlling the gene transcription in the R. sphaeroides organism.