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Is it typical to find a ~30 bp motif enriched in promoters of ~20 related genes?

Hello,

I am observing an enrichment of a ~30 bp motif in promoters of a group of ~20 genes of my interest. I guess, it is too large for a single TF binding site. Just wonder, is a typical thing to find such a large motif or rather not typical?

Thanks!

chip-seq motif promoter enhancer rna-seq

It also depends on the target proteins. If the data is from histone modification study, you may find long motifs as histones spans a large part of DNA. Hence, reads generated from those regions gives you long motifs.

What is the target protein of your experiment/data?

1 answer

30 bp is indeed too large for a single motif. My guess is that the region might be a set of motifs along with smaller, less conserved regions to bind a TF complex. Did you try comparing your motif with the consensus of common motifs or looking up the genomic location on TF databases?

Yes, I did compared with the consensus of common motifs - it is recognized by a bunch of different TFs. This by itself is not surprising, since the genes I am looking at are co-regulated, and it is expected that they have some common TFs binding at the promoter. What I did not expect was to find such a large motif, which indeed looks like an assembly place for a larger TF complex. Still, my question remains: is it typical to find such a large common region in so many gene promoters?

PS. The motif was initially identified using MEME with standard parameters

I've never seen TF motifs longer than 8, but my experience is not extensive. My mentor did state that the majority are either 6-mers or 8-mers.

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