Discovery of novel tumor suppressor p53 response elements using information theory.

An accurate method for locating genes under tumor suppressor p53 control that is based on a well-established mathematical theory and built using naturally occurring, experimentally proven p53 sites is essential in understanding the complete p53 network. We used a molecular information theory approach to create a flexible model for p53 binding. By searching around transcription start sites in human chromosomes 1 and 2, we predicted 16 novel p53 binding sites and experimentally demonstrated that 15 of the 16 (94%) sites were bound by p53.

Discovery of Fur binding site clusters in Escherichia coli by information theory models.

Fur is a DNA binding protein that represses bacterial iron uptake systems. Eleven footprinted Escherichia coli Fur binding sites were used to create an initial information theory model of Fur binding, which was then refined by adding 13 experimentally confirmed sites. When the refined model was scanned across all available footprinted sequences, sequence walkers, which are visual depictions of predicted binding sites, frequently appeared in clusters that fit the footprints ( approximately 83% coverage).

Correlation between binding rate constants and individual information of E. coli Fis binding sites.

Individual protein binding sites on DNA can be measured in bits of information. This information is related to the free energy of binding by the second law of thermodynamics, but binding kinetics appear to be inaccessible from sequence information since the relative contributions of the on- and off-rates to the binding constant, and hence the free energy, are unknown. However, the on-rate could be independent of the sequence since a protein is likely to bind once it is near a site.

Molecular flip-flops formed by overlapping Fis sites.

The DNA-binding protein Fis frequently uses pairs of sites 7 or 11 base pairs (bp) apart. Two overlapping Fis sites separated by 11 bp are found in the Escherichia coli origin of chromosomal replication. Only one of these sites is bound by Fis at a time, so the structure is a molecular flip-flop that could direct alternative firing of replication complexes in opposite directions.