Beyond microarrays: Finding key transcription factors controlling signal transduction pathways

Background: Massive gene expression changes in different cellular states measured by microarrays, in fact, reflect just an "echo" of real molecular processes in the cells. Transcription factors constitute a class of the regulatory molecules that typically require posttranscriptional modifications or ligand binding in order to exert their function. Therefore, such important functional changes of transcription factors are not directly visible in the microarray experiments. Results: We developed a novel approach to find key transcription factors that may explain concerted expression changes of specific components of the signal transduction network. The approach aims at revealing evidence of positive feedback loops in the signal transduction circuits through activation of pathway-specific transcription factors. We demonstrate that promoters of genes encoding components of many known signal transduction pathways are enriched by binding sites of those transcription factors that ar...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Alexander E. Kel, Nico Voss, Ruy Jauregui, Olga V. Kel-Margoulis, Edgar Wingender
• Keywords: BMCBI 2006, Key Transcription Factors, Signal Transduction, Transcription Factors