Sight Seer

Regulating gene expression by transcription factors is fundamental to the survival of every cell. The web is bursting with tools for identifying these proteins and their DNA-binding sites, but few offer a visual perspective. Since seeing is believing, and insightful for understanding too, Paul Boardman at Manchester University developed SightSeer, a tool for imaging mapped transcription factor binding sites upstream of eukaryotic genes. Users paste FASTA-formatted sequence data into a box then select an organism from an impressively long list. SightSeer uses TRANSFAC and SCPD databases for mapping binding locations on the DNAs. Options for narrowing searches are available as well.

[www.chick.manchester.ac.uk/SiteSeer]