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How Transcription Factors Identify Regulatory Sites in Genomic Sequence

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A Handbook of Transcription Factors

Part of the book series: Subcellular Biochemistry ((SCBI,volume 52))

Abstract

Binding of transcription factors to functional sites is a fundamental step in transcriptional regulation. In this chapter, we discuss how transcription factors are thought to achieve specificity to their functional targets, despite their typically low concentrations and degenerate binding specificities, and the fact that in large genomes their functional binding sites must compete with their widespread alternative binding sites. We highlight the importance of the chromatin structure context of the binding sites in this process, and its dependency on the genomic DNA sequence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel

    Yair Field, Eilon Sharon & Eran Segal

Authors
  1. Yair Field
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  2. Eilon Sharon
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  3. Eran Segal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yair Field .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Res, University of Toronto, College St. 160, Toronto, M5S 3E1, Canada

    Timothy R. Hughes

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Field, Y., Sharon, E., Segal, E. (2011). How Transcription Factors Identify Regulatory Sites in Genomic Sequence. In: Hughes, T. (eds) A Handbook of Transcription Factors. Subcellular Biochemistry, vol 52. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9069-0_9

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