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A GA Approach to the Definition of Regulatory Signals in Genomic Sequences
Giancarlo Mauri, Roberto Mosca, and Giulio Pavesi
Bioinformatics and Natural Computing Group, University of Milano–Bicoccamauri@disco.unimib.it
roberto.mosca@disco.unimib.it
pavesi@disco.unimib.it
Abstract. One of the main challenges in modern biology and genome research is to understand the complex mechanisms that regulate gene expression. Being able to tell when, why, and how one or more genes are activated could provide information of inestimable value for the understanding of the mechanisms of life. The wealth of genomic data now available opens new opportunities to researchers. We present how a method based on genetic algorithms has been applied to the characterization of two regulatory signals in DNA sequences, that help the cellular apparatus to locate the beginning of a gene along the genome, and to start its transcription. The signals have been derived from the analysis of a large number of genomic sequences. Comparisons with related work show that our method presents different improvements, both from the computational viewpoint, and in the biological relevance of the results obtained.
LNCS 3102, p. 380 ff.
lncs@springer.de
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004