Study Of Transcriptional Regulatory Network Based On Cis Module Database

Microarray analysis is a high-throughput method for analyzing expression levels of multiple genes, therefore the microarray have been regarded by many investigators as a powerful method. Treating a huge amount of data and judgment of differentially expressed genes require appropriate statistical analysis. When the microarray analysis suggests there are co-expressed genes under a specific condition, there is high possibility that the common transcriptional factors (TFs) control them. It is also difficult to identify the TFs involved in co-expression through only biochemical experiments. In view of cis-element pattern related to co expressed genes might be one of the solutions to infer the gene expression mechanism clearly.So far, we have constructed Cis-Module database in order to specify cis-element location and distribution on genome. Using this database and rat microarray data, we have investigated the TFs network related to co-expression of genes. If we could also extract the human genes that are orthologous to co-expressed gene in rat, it will allow us to compare their cis-elements and TFs and to consider difference of gene expression profiles between rat and human. It will be very useful to find out attention to drug discovery targeting gene expression mechanism.