Conserved DNA Sequences Discovered From Atrial Fibrillation Related Genes

Abstract

Many genes change their transcription in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, which indicates the functional relationship of these genes with AF. Thus, identifying the over-represented motifs in the upstream region of these genes would shed light on the mechanism of this disease. We analyzed a set of microarray experiments, selected from genes whose expression was changed, and extracted their regulatory sequences from genome databases. In addition, we used a motif discovery algorithm to obtain frequent DNA motifs in these sequences. Representative motifs were selected and matched to known transcription factor binding sites by clustering analysis, and 3 putative motifs related to AF were finally identified.