Question

How were core promoter elements identified? How would you do this in a new organism?

Answer 1

Core promoter elements are the minimal portion of a promoter required to initiate a transcription. The first core promoter to be identified was the TATA box. It was identified by an American biochemist named David Hogness, while he was analyzing the 5' regions of various drosophila, mammalian and viral genes. The TATA box was found in the protein coding genes transcribed by RNA Polymerase II.

In current scenario they are identified with the help of 2 different approaches. 1. The use of gene structure and conservation. 2. Existence of sequence profiles that might signal promoter region. In the first case, statistical algorithms are used to deermdete the conserved sequences upstream of the 5' region. And in the second approach algorithms are designed to detect sequences that may contain CPG islands, TATA box or the regions with large population of transcription factor binding sites, as these are usually present near promoter region and may help in detection of a promoter region.