TFBScluster web server for the identification of mammalian composite regulatory elements

Abstract

Identification of transcriptional regulatory elements represents a critical step in our ability to recons- truct transcriptional regulatory networks from gene expression profiling datasets. To facilitate computa- tional identification of candidate gene regulatory elements from whole genome sequences, we have developedtheTFBSclusterwebserverthatintegrates several tools for the genome-wide identification and subsequent characterization of transcription factor binding site clusters that are conserved in multiple mammalian species. Either the human or mouse genomes can be used as the reference sequence with direct links from the search results to the ENSEMBL and UCSC genome browsers. Moreover, TFBScluster provides seamless integration of trans- cription factor binding site searches with genome annotation and gene expression profiling data, to allow prioritising computational predictions for subsequent experimental validation. TFBScluster is publicly available at http://hscl.cimr.cam.ac.uk/ TFBScluster_genome_portal.html.