多国科学家组成的研究小组日前成功绘制了人体正常细胞中转录因子之间相互发挥作用的示意图。
研究人员调查了人体约2000种转录因子中的1222种。在这份示意图中，转录因子用点来表示，如果两种转录因子之间存在相互作用，就用线条把相应的两个点连接起来。最终，所有的连接工作结束后，画面出现一个大致的圆形。
有了这份示意图，转录因子之间复杂的关系可以较清楚地呈现在人们面前。研究人员表示，只要拥有必要的数据，癌细胞中转录因子之间的相互作用也能够通过图形表现出来，以帮助专家推测癌细胞基因的活动。
这一研究成果已发表在新一期美国学术期刊《细胞》上。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Cell, Volume 140, Issue 5, 744-752, 5 March 2010 10.1016/j.cell.2010.01.044
An Atlas of Combinatorial Transcriptional Regulation in Mouse and Man
Timothy Ravasi, Harukazu Suzuki, Carlo Vittorio Cannistraci, Shintaro Katayama, Vladimir B. Bajic, Kai Tan, Altuna Akalin, Sebastian Schmeier, Mutsumi Kanamori-Katayama, Nicolas Bertin, Piero Carninci, Carsten O. Daub, Alistair R.R. Forrest, Julian Gough, Sean Grimmond, Jung-Hoon Han, Takehiro Hashimoto, Winston Hide, Oliver Hofmann, Hideya Kawaji, Atsutaka Kubosaki, Timo Lassmann, Erik van Nimwegen, Chihiro Ogawa, Rohan D. Teasdale, Jesper Tegnér, Boris Lenhard, Sarah A. Teichmann, Takahiro Arakawa, Noriko Ninomiya, Kayoko Murakami, Michihira Tagami, Shiro Fukuda, Kengo Imamura, Chikatoshi Kai, Ryoko Ishihara, Yayoi Kitazume, Jun Kawai, David A. Hume, Trey Ideker, Yoshihide Hayashizaki
Combinatorial interactions among transcription factors are critical to directing tissue-specific gene expression. To build a global atlas of these combinations, we have screened for physical interactions among the majority of human and mouse DNA-binding transcription factors (TFs). The complete networks contain 762 human and 877 mouse interactions. Analysis of the networks reveals that highly connected TFs are broadly expressed across tissues, and that roughly half of the measured interactions are conserved between mouse and human. The data highlight the importance of TF combinations for determining cell fate, and they lead to the identification of a SMAD3/FLI1 complex expressed during development of immunity. The availability of large TF combinatorial networks in both human and mouse will provide many opportunities to study gene regulation, tissue differentiation, and mammalian evolution.
