Patent Publication Number: US-7720614-B2

Title: Method for identification of cis-regulatory modules via computational analysis of single polynucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (indels)

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION 
   This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Ser. No. 60/634,196, filed Dec. 7, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 

   STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT 
   This invention was made in part with government support under Grant No. IOB-0212869 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The government has certain rights in this invention. 

   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates generally to gene regulatory networks and more specifically to identifying genomic sequences which function as cis-regulatory modules. 
   2. Background Information 
   In bilaterian animals, such as humans, all major life processes, both developmental and physiological, are controlled by large gene networks. The gene networks that control development are of particular importance, as well as of particular complexity. These networks define each bilaterian species and lade, and they determine the ultimate inherited capabilities of the organism, since by their hardwired architecture, they define all species-specific aspects of the body plan. 
   Whole genome analysis has demonstrated that the most important genes utilized in development are all shared across Bilateria. These genes are the genes encoding transcriptional factors and co-factors and elements of signaling systems. Differences in the repertoire of these genes, or of genomically encoded protein domains, cannot account for the differences in body plan amongst bilaterian animals: rather, the causal explanation for particular developmental pathways lies in the regulatory connections programmed in the genome. 
   But as detailed functional studies have revealed the internal structure of some cis-regulatory modules, it is less clear whether much of the sequence length that is included in the relatively conserved sequences must be located between, and not within, the known transcription factor target sites. It is unlikely that base pairs located between the transcription factor target sites of cis-regulatory modules have sequence dependent function, and the mechanism that constrains evolutionary change within cis-regulatory modules is incompletely understood. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to identification of cis-regulatory modules in genomes by comparing selected interspecific genome sequences using statistical targeting of putative patches, which patches contain suppressed indels and SNPs in regions within such patches when compared to flanking sequences. 
   In one embodiment, a method of identifying a cis-regulatory module is provided, including, determining sequence similarities significantly greater than random expectation on selected genome sequences from two or more closely related species in sequences that lie outside of protein coding regions, sorting the similarities for conserved patches of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletions (indels), constructing a computational map of SNPs/indels, where the SNPs/indels have occurrence rates within the patches which are suppressed when compared to flanking sequences, computing a moving window snp/indel intensity parameter based on the patches, and moving the window across a query sequence, where a putative cis-regulatory module is identified if a region in the query sequence significantly matches the window parameter. In one aspect, the computational map is from one or more closely related primate species, including where the primate is an ape, monkey, or human. In a further aspect, the method includes comparing the cis-regulatory modules based on the primate derived computational map to select genome sequences from non-primates and predicting cis-regulatory modules in the non-primate sequences. 
   In one aspect, the flanking regions comprise large indels having a length of at least 6-10 nucleotides. In another aspect, the suppressed occurrence rate within the patches for SNPs exhibits a decrease in frequency of about 30% to about 50% when compared to flanking sequences. 
   In another aspect, the method includes calculating the ratio of indels of differing lengths in transcriptionally active sequences versus flanking sequences, wherein the length of the indels is about 1 to 5 nucleotides, about 6 to 10 nucleotides, about 11-15 nucleotides, about 16 to 20 nucleotides, or greater than about 21 nucleotides. In a related aspect, the ratio of indels of about 6 to 10 nucleotides is between about 0 to about 0.7. 
   In one aspect, the method includes identifying disease associations in the identified cis-regulatory modules. 
   In another aspect, determining sequence similarity includes using a computer algorithm to compare aligned sequences. 
   In one embodiment, a computational map generated by the method of the present invention is provided. 
   In another embodiment, a library of genomic target site clusters including putative cis-regulatory modules identified by the method of the present invention is provided. 
   In one embodiment, a computer readable medium is provided, having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of the present invention. 
   Exemplary methods and compositions according to this invention are described in greater detail below. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  shows sea urchin evolutionary distances and the sequencing method. The phylogenetic tree derived from several sources is depicted on the left side. The scale of divergence times in millions of years appears below the tree. To the right, the sequencing strategy is shown as a cartoon (“1”). A FAMILY RELATIONS comparison made between the BAC sequences of the more distantly related species,  S. purpuratus  (purple) and  L. variegatus  (green), is displayed as red lines (“2”). The conserved patches thus revealed are then used to design primers. An example of a conserved region thus used is circled, and an arrow points to the assortment of these primers used on the  S. franciscanus  BAC sequence (red) (“3” and “4”). Both standard PCR followed by sequencing and direct sequencing from the  S. franciscanus  BAC template were used with these primers (“5”). The resulting  S. franciscanus  sequence was aligned with the  S. purpuratus  sequence, and the number of gaps and substitutions was tallied. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates the active and flanking regions converging from the  S. franciscanus  BAC sequence for the five genes mapped onto the  S. purpuratus  BAC clones with the  S. purpuratus  exon positions for reference. The genomic sequence in the  S. franciscanus  BAC is depicted in light gray for flanking regions and in dark gray for active regions. The coordinates of the  S. purpuratus  BAC are indicated in kb at the end of the black line representing the sequence. The orientation of the sequence with respect to the direction of transcription is indicated outboard of the number (5′ and 3′). 
       FIG. 3  shows the distribution of indels and SNPs for active cis-regulatory sequences (black) compared with adjacent inactive sequence (gray). 
       FIG. 4  illustrates the preliminary analysis of transcription factor, gcm. A PAIRCOMP analysis (window=20 bp; similarity=95%) of the SpBAC sequence and a contig obtained from the WGS assembly displayed in the region of the two cis-regulatory modules D and E shown in green. In addition to a surprising lack of sequence similarity in the region between the modules, there is a graphic example of either an insertion in the contig or a deletion in the BAC (asterisk). 
       FIGS. 5(   a - k ) show a sequence alignment for brachyury. The pairwise sequence alignments are used to calculate the proportion of base changes and gaps between either  S. purpuratus  and  S. franciscanus  or among a group of  S. purpuratus  individuals. The alignments are reformatted from a CLUSTALW output. In the interspecific comparisons, the  S. purpuratus  BAC sequence is the upper sequence; the lower sequence is the  S. franciscanus  one. The intraspecific comparisons for the endo16 gene use the originally published sequence as reference. 
       FIGS. 6(   a - o ) show a sequence alignment for delta. The pairwise sequence alignment calculations are the same as for  FIG. 5 . 
       FIGS. 7(   a - l ) show a sequence alignment for gatae. The pairwise sequence alignment calculations are the same as for  FIG. 5 . 
       FIGS. 8(   a - j ) show a sequence alignment for otx. The pairwise sequence alignment calculations are the same as for  FIG. 5 . 
       FIGS. 9(   a - n ) show a sequence alignment for wnt8. The pairwise sequence alignment calculations are the same as for  FIG. 5 . 
       FIGS. 10(   a - q ) show a sequence alignment for endo16. The pairwise sequence alignment calculations are the same as for  FIG. 5 . 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   Before the present compositions, methods, and computational methodologies are described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to particular compositions, methods, and experimental conditions described, as such compositions and methods may vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for purposes of describing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting, since the scope of the present invention will be limited only in the appended claims. 
   As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, references to “a nucleic acid” includes one or more nucleic acids, and/or compositions of the type described herein which will become apparent to those persons skilled in the art upon reading this disclosure and so forth. 
   Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the invention, as it will be understood that modifications and variations are encompassed within the spirit and scope of the instant disclosure. All publications mentioned herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
   As used herein “cis-regulatory modules,” including grammatical variations thereof, are the specific DNA sequences that directly regulate expression of a given gene. 
   As used herein “indel,” including grammatical variations thereof, means insertion and/or deletion of nucleotide sequences. 
   As used herein “informative alignment,” including grammatical variations thereof, means the appropriateness of the relative positioning of sequences that allows firm conclusions about the structure of conserved patterns to be drawn such that one region of sequence is favored over another. For example, regions with many insertions and deletions in the alignment are less informative. 
   As used herein, “genomic target site clusters,” means sites along a given genome where transcription factors bind. 
   As used herein, “snp/indel intensity parameter” means the measure of SNP/indels used in a window to define similarity and statistical significance between aligned sequences. In a related aspect, such windows can be about 10 bp to about 20 bp, about 20 bp to about 30 bp, about 30 bp to about 40 bp, or about 40 bp to about 50 bp. In another related aspect, sequence similarity or homology is about 70%, about 75%, about 80%, about 85%, about 90%, or about 95%. 
   In one aspect, where the transcription factor target sites are not known in advance, the present disclosure provides an interspecific sequence comparison method for physically identifying putative cis regulatory modules in the intronic or intergenic DNA sequence of given animal genes. As has long seemed reasonable to assume on the grounds that they are functionally essential, these key regulatory units are evolutionarily conserved relative to flanking sequence. 
   The DNA of functional cis-regulatory modules displays extensive sequence conservation in comparison of genomes from closely species, as disclosed herein. Patches of sequence that are several hundred base pairs in length within these modules are often seen to be 80-95% identical, although the flanking sequences cannot even be aligned (e.g., due to a high number of indels). 
   In one aspect, percent sequence identity may be calculated using computer programs or direct sequence comparison. A plurality of homology search algorithms may be used to determine optimal alignment of sequences. These include the local homology algorithm of Smith &amp; Waterman, Adv Appl Math (1981) 2:482, the homology alignment algorithm of Needleman &amp; Wunsch, J Mol Biol (1970) 48:443, the similarity method of Pearson &amp; Lipman, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1988) 85:2444, the PSI-Blast homology algorithm of Altschul et al., Nucleic Acids Res (1997) 25:3389-402, the computerized implementations of algorithms GAP, BESTFIT, FASTA, and TFASTA included in the Wisconsin Genetics Software Package, Genetics Computer Group, 575 Science Dr., Madison, Wis.), by Hidden Markov Models (HMM, Durbin, Eddy, Krogh &amp; Mitchison, Cambridge University Press, 1998), or EMotif/EMatrix to identify sequence motifs (Nevill-Manning et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1998) 95(11):5865-71), or by visual inspection (see generally Ausubel et al., supra). Each of the above identified algorithms and the references are herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. These algorithms are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art of molecular biology and bioinformatics. When using any of the aforementioned algorithms, the user will define parameters for “Window”, gap penalty, and the like (e.g., the user can define the window-size, how window boundaries are determined, how gaps will be handled, and how absolute similarity and statistical significance will be indicated in program output). Practitioners of the art molecular biology with average skill will recognize these parameters (e.g., gap penalty is a scoring value to prevent large gaps from occurring in reported alignments). 
   Thus, as provided in the present disclosure, cis-regulatory modules can be detected computationally by interspecific comparison of the sequence surrounding a gene of interest, recognized as a block of sequence that has remained relatively similar between two or more species. 
   Such sequences may be excised by, for example, but not limited to, PCR and incorporated in an expression vector. Their function can be studied by direct gene transfer methods. In one aspect, for “closely related species,” the appropriate evolutionary species distance is not so close such that unselected (i.e., “background”) sequences have not had time to diverge, but the distance is not so far that the pattern of conservation has been lost by too much divergence. In a related aspect, the evolutionary distance may range from about 1 to about 5 million years, about 5 to about 10 million years, about 10 to about 20 million years, about 20 to about 30 million years, about 20 to about 50 million years, or about 50 to about 100 million years. 
   At the appropriate distance, cis-regulatory modules stand out from the immediately flanking background as patches of well conserved sequence that are usually several hundred base pairs in length and terminated at their boundaries by abrupt transitions to sequence that has diverged too greatly for facile computational alignment. 
   Cis-regulatory modules may be defined experimentally as DNA fragments that, as a whole, faithfully recreate given developmental patterns of expression in gene transfer experiments. They consist of the target sites for the transcription factors to which they respond, plus the sequence intervening between these sites. 
   Although interspecific sequence comparisons may reveal cis-regulatory modules as long contiguous patches of sequence that are relatively well conserved with respect to external sequences, it is not obvious why there would be deleterious effects of sequence change outside the specific base pairs that participate directly in chemical interactions with transcription factor amino acid side chains. In three dimensional analysis of DNA-transcription factor complexes, detailed mutational studies, and “selex” assays, only a few base pairs per interaction are seen to be partially or wholly constrained, and these elements are commonly confined to short sequences typically about 6 to about 8 base pairs in length. Furthermore, for well studied examples, there is direct evidence that the actual transcription factor target sites often occupy less than half of the module length. This evidence is of several kinds, including (i) oligonucleotides mapping of all specific sites of DNA-protein interaction (see, e.g., Yuh et al., Mech Dev (1994) 47:165-186), (ii) numerous reconstruction mutation studies in which modular sequences are altered without discernable effects on function except when constrained nucleotides within target sites are changed (e.g., see, Davidson,  Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution,  2001, Academic Publishing, San Diego, Calif.; Yuh et al., Science (1998) 279:1896-1902; Yuh et al., Development (2001) 128:617-628; and Kirchhammer and Davidson, Development (1996) 122:353-348), (iii) studies on regulatory modules of which the transacting factors are known and the sites of their interaction can be recognized in the sequence (see, e.g., Arnone and Davidson Development (1997) 124:1851-1864 and Davidson (2001)), and (iv) comparative studies on orthologous cis-regulatory modules from animals that are so distant from one another that only the transcription factor target sites are unchanged (see, e.g., Tümpel et al., Dev Biol (2002) 246:45-56; Shashikant et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1998) 95:15446-15451; Kim et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2000) 97:1655-1660; Ludwig et al., Development (1998) 125:949-958; Langeland and Carroll, Development (1993) 117:585-596; and Williams et al., Nature (1994) 368:299-305). 
   Though not to be bound by theory, this suggests that the target sites themselves are spaced by intervening sequences that have undergone a great deal of change during evolution. The evidence combines to exclude the idea that the observed patterns of cis-regulatory module conservation are due to functional nucleotide-by-nucleotide selection across the whole length of the module. 
   A mechanism that might account for what is observed is as follows. Again, not to be bound by theory, in the evolution of cis-regulatory modules, the occurrence of indels that are large enough to be likely to affect adjacent target sites might be selectively disfavored, whereas the occurrence (fixation) of single-nucleotide substitutions and small indels between transcription factor target sites is not constrained, although change within the sites themselves is, of course, constrained. It has been observed that for several cases the rate of indel accumulation in unselected sequence is sufficiently high to account for a large fraction of the total sequence change during divergence (see, e.g., Britten et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2003) 100:4661-4665; Britten, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2002) 99:13633-13635; and Fujiyama et al., Science (002) 295:131-134). Given these observations, the relative suppression within cis-regulatory modules of large indels but not of small indels or single-nucleotide changes gives the following predictions: (i) Comparison of two genomes just sufficiently distant so that nonselected sequence cannot usually be aligned will indeed reveal cis-regulatory modules as internally aligned, and thus apparently conserved patches of sequence, because the occurrence of large indels rapidly generates sequence that cannot easily be aligned, whereas, until it approaches saturation, the occurrence of single-nucleotide substitutions or small indels does not. (ii) Within these patches, the rate of occurrence of single nucleotide substitutions and of small (one or a few base pairs long) indels will be similar to the rate outside them after correcting for the fraction of the modules included in the actually constrained target site sequence. (iii) At greater evolutionary distance, as small changes accumulate, the apparent conservation of the module as a whole will disappear, because similarities of the unconstrained portions of the intramodular sequence will be lost, and only the transcription factor target sites themselves will be retained as conserved sequence elements. 
   That cis-regulatory modules can be effectively identified by detection of patchy interspecific sequence conservation consistent with prediction (i), is the starting point. Consistent [with prediction (iii)] is the observation that at great evolutionary distance, patchy sequence conservation of cis-regulatory modules can no longer be seen, even where gene transfer experiments reveal conserved target site function. 
   The requirements are (i) to ascertain sequence divergence within cis-regulatory modules that are already known experimentally to be functional, so that the comparison of sequences within and outside its boundaries is meaningful and (ii) that a species pair be used that is sufficiently close so that the genomic sequence can be unequivocally aligned both inside and outside selectively conserved features. 
   In one aspect, “selected genomic sequences” will be obtained for a sequenced target genome within which to search for the relevant cis-regulatory modules. For example, but not limited to, an insert that extends from the adjacent gene on the 5′-side of the gene of interest to the adjacent gene on the 3′-side, minus certain classes of sequence that are stripped out computationally, may serve as a selected genome sequence. In the case of clustered genes of the same family, e.g., Hox genes or some of the NK class homeodomain genes, certain sequences may not be excluded on the other side of the adjacent genes because of their associated functional consequences if deleted, but many genes of interest are unique, and are not found in paralogue clusters (i.e., homologous because of a gene duplication event). 
   The sequences stripped out are those exonic sequences encoding protein, direct simple sequences (mono-, di-, and tri-nucleotide repeats greater than 11 bp in length), and recognizable repetitive sequences. Repetitive sequences may be highly species-specific and in the absence of extensive genomic sequence data, may be difficult to recognize at the sequence level. However, one of skill in the art may modify this criterion to serve user specific requirements. For example, while BAC-end sequence resources deriving from various genome projects can provide a useable library of repeat elements for their associated species, only the higher frequency repeats are routinely identified. Again, this criterion may be modified by the user. 
   In a related aspect, for example, but not limited to, all sequence elements 500 bp long to all others within a genomic sequence are compared, looking for any sequence similarities significantly greater than random expectation. For example, the statistical significance of genome mapping may be determined by chi-square test of observed number of orthologs between genomic sequences and a randomly expected number, with respect to the smallest number of genes on these genomes. The random expectation can be calculated as a fraction of the number of orthologs on the genome of one of a first corresponding closely related species that would be expected to fall on the genome of a second species in the pair, assuming uniform distribution over all of the genes of the second closely related species. Alternatively, Hidden Markov Modeling may be used to determine the likelihood of an observation that is significantly greater than random expectation (i.e., a statistical model in which the system being modeled is assumed to be a Markov process with unknown parameters, and the challenge is to determine the hidden parameters from the observable parameters. The extracted model parameters can then be used to perform further analysis, for example for pattern recognition applications). Further, other means include Poisson metrics. 
   These similarities are then sorted for families of sequence elements ≧80% or 90% homologous. Thus, as data accumulates for each species, a log of both locally repeated sequence elements (e.g., within given genomic sequence) and globally interspersed repeated sequences (e.g., among genomes) is constructed. These may be flagged, or if identified clearly enough, stripped from the selected sequence. What remains of the selected sequence surrounding the gene of interest is then used as the search basis for putative/conserved patches. This will be the largely single copy sequences flanking the gene on either side, plus intronic sequences. 
   To annotate the sequences, sequencing may be searched preliminarily for sequenced genes identifiable by comparison with protein data banks (e.g., TRANSFAC transcription database, maintained at the GBF Brunschweig, Germany; GenBank, National Institutes of Health) and then analyzed by various annotation programs (e.g., modified Genotator; Sea Urchin Genome AnnotatoR (SUGAR); GLIMMERM, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), and the like). Selected genome regions are identified then stripped. 
   In one embodiment, a method of identifying a cis-regulatory module is provided, including, determining sequence similarities significantly greater than random expectation on selected genome sequences from two or more closely related species in sequences that lie outside of protein coding regions, sorting the similarities for conserved patches of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletions (indels), constructing a computational map of SNPs/indels, where the SNPs/indels have occurrence rates within the patches which are suppressed when compared to flanking sequences, computing a moving window snp/indel intensity parameter based on the patches, and moving the window across a query sequence, where a putative cis-regulatory module is identified if a region in the query sequence significantly matches the window parameter. In a related aspect, a computational map generated by the disclosed method is provided. 
   Nucleic acids so identified can be amplified from genomic DNA using established polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques (see K. Mullis et al. (1986)  Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol.  51:260; K. H. Roux (1995)  PCR Methods Appl.  4:S185) in accordance with the nucleic acid sequence information provided herein. 
   In another aspect, alignment/predictive algorithms include, but are not limited to, BLASTN (National Center for Biotechnology Information, hosted by the National Library of Medicine, Nation Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. FAMILY RELATIONS (FR) (see, FamilyJewels, Tools for Comparative Sequence Analysis, hosted by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.), CLUSTAL W ( Bioinformatics: A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins , (2001), 2nd ed., (Baxevanis and Guellette, eds.), Wiley-Interscience, New York, N.Y.), AMPS (Barton, Methods Enz (1990) 183:403-428), GENSCAN (Burge and Karlin, Curr Opin Struct Biol (1998) 8:346-354), PROCRUSTES (Gelfand et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1996) 93:9061-9066), GeneParser (Snyder and Stormo, in DNA and Protein Sequence Analysis, 1997, (Bishop and Rawlings, eds.), p 209-224, Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y.) and the like, or a combination thereof. In another aspect, comparing the putative cis-regulatory module to known cis-regulatory modules to further define SNP/indels occurrence rates is provided. 
   In one aspect, the decrease in frequency of SNPs is about 30% to about 50%. In a related aspect, the method includes calculating the ratio of SNPs in transcriptionally active sequences versus flanking sequences. In a further related aspect, the ratio determined is between about 0.1 to about 0.7. 
   In another aspect, the method includes calculating the ratio of indels of differing lengths in transcriptionally active sequences versus flanking sequences, where the length of the indels is about 1 to 5 nucleotides, about 6 to 10 nucleotides, about 11-15 nucleotides, about 16 to 20 nucleotides, or greater than about 21 nucleotides. In a related aspect, the ratio of indels of about 6 to 10 nucleotides is between about 0 to about 0.7. 
   In one aspect, genome wide computational maps of SNPs and indels may be constructed from the data generated by the disclosed method using closely related species, with reference to those species of interest (e.g., humans), to compute a moving window snp/indel intensity parameter as a function of position. For example, the basic idea is to slide a window across a query sequence and identify which region it matches best with each new position of the window. A query sequence is identified as a putative patch if it shows significant similarity to sequences identified in “selected genomic sequences.” The program accepts a query sequence and a background alignment, and allows the user to define the window-size, how window boundaries are determined, how gaps will be handled, and how absolute similarity and statistical significance will be indicated in program output. 
   The unlikelyhood of the ratio given the local background can be computed, using, for example, a low order Markov model (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,069 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,470,277) for local background, in all regions of the genome, where unusual snp/indel ratio features of the appropriate size are stored as a look-up table that are accessed by comparing such features to the genes they are near. In a related aspect, computing a likelihood ratio via a first order Markov for the genome sequence is provided to represent the likelihood that a suppressed SNP/indel ratio will randomly occur in a sequence being analyzed. 
   Another aspect of the present invention pertains to expression vectors comprising a putative cis-module operably linked to at least one reporter gene sequence. “Operably linked” is intended to mean that the cis-module sequence is linked to a reporter gene sequence in a manner that allows expression of the reporter gene sequence. Reporter sequences are known in the art and are selected to determine transcriptional modulation in an appropriate host cell. (see, e.g., D. V. Goeddel (1990) Methods Enzymol. 185:3-7). It should be understood that the design of the expression vector may depend on such factors as the choice of the host cell to be transfected and/or the type of reporter desired to be expressed. Such reporter proteins include, but are not limited to, β-galactosidase, luciferase, chloramphenicol acetyltransferase, green fluorescent protein, secreted alkaline phosphatase, and the like. 
   Appropriate host cells for use with the present invention include bacteria, fungi, yeast, plant, insect, and animal cells, especially mammalian and human cells. Replication and inheritance systems include, but are not limited to, M13, ColE 1, SV40, baculovirus, lambda, adenovirus, CEN ARS, 2 μm ARS, and the like. 
   Vectors can contain one or more replication and inheritance systems for cloning or expression, one or more markers for selection in the host, e.g., antibiotic resistance, and one or more expression cassettes. The inserted sequences of interest can be synthesized by standard methods, isolated from natural sources, or prepared as hybrids. Ligation of the sequences of interest can be carried out using established methods. 
   In one aspect, the method further includes operably linking the putative patch region to a reporter sequence in a vector and determining whether the reporter sequence is expressed in a host comprising the vector. 
   In another aspect, a canonical approach is used to computationally identify target cis-regulatory modules. The stripped sequences or putative patches are subjected to two forms of a priori analysis. They are first analyzed for statistical features indicative of putative cis-regulatory modules, and likely target regions are identified and displayed on sequence coordinates. These are regions where short sequence motifs appear in clusters (i.e., multiply, within a set distance with respect either to individual motifs, and/or several motifs in combination). 
   In one embodiment, two algorithms can be used: one statistical, the other heuristic (using artificial neural networks, see, e.g., Hatzigeorgiou, et al., 1996. Functional site prediction on the DNA sequence by artificial neural networks. In  Proceedings of the IEEE International Joint Symposia on Intelligence and Systems , pp. 12-17. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, Calif.) to identify motifs of multiple putative transcription factor binding sites clustering within shorter (user defined) lengths of sequence such that the rate of occurrence of the clusters falls outside of statistical expectations. Exact patterns or user defined degrees of variability in the putative binding sites can be used. 
   The putative patches can be compared to the equivalent genomic sequence of related species, and then other species. For example, relevant sequences surrounding genes of interest in rat can be compared to that surrounding the same gene in, for example, mice and then to that surrounding the orthologous gene in humans. In one aspect, computational maps are generated from one or more closely related primate or murine species. In a related aspect, the primate is an ape, monkey, or human. In a further related aspect, cis-regulatory modules based on the primate derived computational map are compared to select genome sequences from non-primates and used to predict cis-regulatory modules in the non-primate sequences or vice versa. 
   Such comparisons are carried out using FAMILY RELATIONS program, or the like, and the results compared to the statistically selected regions of the same sequence, with particular weight given to interspecific conserved elements that also have the desired statistical features. In one aspect, a library of putative cis-regulatory modules is provided, where the modules are identified by the method as described. 
   In another embodiment, oligonucleotides, or longer fragments derived from conserved patch sequences described herein may be used as targets in a library/microarray (e.g., biochip) system. The microarray, for example, can be used to identify genetic variants, mutations, and polymorphisms. This information may be used to determine gene function, to understand the genetic basis of a disease, to diagnose disease, and to develop and monitor the activities of therapeutic or prophylactic agents. Preparation and use of microarrays have been described in WO 95/11995 to Chee et al.; Lockhart et al., Nature Biotechnology (1996) 14:1675-1680; Schena et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1996) 93:10614-10619; U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,702 to Lal et al.; Worley et al., Microarray Biochip Technology, (Schena, ed.), Biotechniques Book, Natick, Mass., (2000) pp. 65-86; Rogers et al., Anal Biochem (1999) 266(1):23-30; Head et al., Mol Cell Probes (1999) 13(2):81-7; Watson et al., Biol Psychiatry (2000) 48(12):1147-56. 
   In one aspect, microarrays containing arrays of conserved patch sequences can be used to identify mutations or polymorphisms in a population, including but not limited to, deletions, insertions, and mismatches. For example, mutations can be identified by: (i) placing cis-regulatory module polynucleotides of the present invention onto a biochip; (ii) taking a test sample and adding the sample to the biochip; (iii) determining if the test samples hybridize to the cis-regulatory module polynucleotides attached to the chip under various hybridization conditions (see, e.g., Chechetkin et al., J Biomol Struct Dyn (2000) 18(1):83-101). Alternatively microarray sequencing can be performed (see, e.g., Diamandis, Clin Chem (2000) 46(10):1523-1525). 
   In another aspect, methods of the present invention can be used to generate a database of transcription target site clusters comprising low SNP/indel ratios. 
   In another embodiment, a conserved patch sequence or cis-regulatory module, or a complementary sequence, or fragment thereof, can be used as a probe which is useful for mapping naturally occurring genomic sequences. The sequences may be mapped to a particular chromosome, to a specific region of a chromosome, or contig, to human artificial chromosome constructions (HACs), yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs), bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), bacterial PI constructions, or single chromosome cDNA libraries (see, e.g., Price, Blood Rev (1993) 7:127-134 and Trask, Trends Genet (1991) 7:149-154). 
   The following examples are intended to illustrate but not limit the invention. 
   EXAMPLE 1 
   Methods 
   Genes and cis-Regulatory Modules. 
   The five cis-regulatory modules derive from three genes that encode transcription factors (gatae, brachyury, and otx) and two genes that encode signaling ligands (delta and wnt8). The endo16 gene, also included in the analysis, encodes a terminal differentiation protein of the endoderm. GenBank accession numbers for all six genes are listed in Table 2. The analysis of another transcription factor, gcm, can be seen in  FIG. 4 . 
   The sequences used to perform an intraspecific analysis of the endo16 gene of  S. purpuratus  were collected from several sources: (i) those determined in a previous study of the cis-regulatory modules controlling endo16 (Yuh et al. (1998) and Yuh et al. (2001)), (ii) a previously sequenced BAC insert, (iii) a contig from the whole-genome assembly shotgun assembly (GenBank Acc No. AAGJ00000000), and (iv) the sequence determined in other studies. Three active regions and nine flanking regions lying within the region 5′ of the conserved A and B modules of endo16 were analyzed. 
   Primer Design and Sequencing from  S. franciscanus  BACs. 
   To obtain tracts of sequence from the genomic regions surrounding the relevant cis-regulatory modules in  S. franciscanus , primers that lie outside the highly conserved protein coding regions were required. For each gene, alignments between the  S. purpuratus  and  L. variegatus  BAC inserts had been previously had been performed. To identify suitable conserved regions for primer design, BLASTN (Altschul et al., J Mol Biol (1990) 215:403-410) and additional FAMILY RELATIONS (FR) analyses were performed. For example, at a window size of 10 bp and a similarity of 90%, FR reveals tracts of conserved sequence easily seen in dot plots. Such highly conserved regions were taken as likely primer targets in the  S. franciscanus  sequence, because it is much less diverged from  S. purpuratus  than is  L. variegatus . The FR routine produces a machine-readable XML file, which was used directly for computation of sets of PCR primer pairs, each of which lies in a conserved region. Primers were designed on the  S. purpuratus  sequence by using EPRIMER3, and primer pairs were selected to yield overlapping products for sequencing. Appropriate BAC inserts from  S. franciscanus  served as templates in standard PCRs. For sequencing reactions, the amplified products were gel-purified, and the PCR primers were used as sequencing primers in standard Applied Biosystems BIG DYE® (dyes designed for specialty applications that require optimal base calling adhacent to the primer and for sequencing short PCR product templates with rapid electrophoresis run modules) sequencing reactions, which were read on a 3730 DNA Sequencer (Applied Biosystems). Sequencing reads were assembled with the PHRED-PHRAP-CONSED package (see, e.g., Ewing and Green, Genome Res (1998) 8:186-194 and Ewing et al., Genome Res (1998) 8:175-185) and mapped onto the  S. purpuratus  sequence with CROSSMATCH (Gordon et al., Genome Res (1998) 8:195-202). The CROSSMATCH output was translated into XML and viewed in FAMILY RELATIONS. The assembled  S. franciscanus  sequences were primarily aligned to the  S. purpuratus  BAC sequences by using BLASTN to choose suitable regions for alignment with CLUSTTALW (Thompson et al., Nucleic Acids Res (1997) 24:4876-4882). Regions marked by long indels were examined by hand to confirm proper alignment. Identities, single base pair substitutions, and number and size gaps were tabulated from the CLUSTALW output. Approximately 30 kb of sequence was obtained by this method in the absence of any previously known tracts of  S. franciscanus  sequence. Primer-walking methods were used to fill in many of the sequence gaps and to obtain additional sequence.  S. franciscanus  genomic sequence data is as set forth in Table 3. 
   Sea Urchin Species. 
   Extensive comparisons of genomic  S. purpuratus  vs.  L. variegatus  sequence around all genes included in this example revealed the conserved cis-regulatory modules to be flanked by sequence that is too divergent to be recognized. The family Toxopneustidae, to which Lytechinus belongs, is believed to have diverged from the Strongylotrotidae ˜50 million years ago (Gonzales and Lessios, Mol Biol Evol (1999) 16:938-952; Littlewood et al., Philos Trans R Soc London B (2002) 347:213-234). To be able to align and compare not only the orthologous cis-regulatory modules but also the flanking, freely diverging sequence, a member of the genus  Strongylocentrotus  was used,  S. franciscanus  (Hall et al., J Mol Evol (1980) 16:95-110; Springer et al., Mol Biol Evol (1995) 12:219-230). The North Pacific radiation of the Strongylocentrotidae represented by  S. franciscanus  and  S. purpuratus , which are today sympatric, is dated to ˜18 million years ago (Gonzales (1999); Littlewood et al. (2002); Lee, Mol Biol Evol (2003) 20:1211-1221; and Biermann et al., Evol Dev (2003) 5:360-371). The adult forms of these two species are in all respects very similar, except for the brick-red pigmentation and the much larger size of  S. franciscanus . The phylogenetic relation of all three species is summarized in the diagram of  FIG. 1 . 
   Five genes were chosen, of which cis-regulatory modules had been discovered and characterized in other studies. Although whole BAC sequences covering the respective gene regions of  L. variegatus  and  S. purpuratus  were available (see Table 1), it was necessary to obtain the desired  S. franciscanus  sequence de novo. 
   
     
       
         
             
           
             
               TABLE 1 
             
           
          
             
                 
             
             
               Ordered and oriented BAC sequences for Sp and Lv BAC clones. 
             
          
         
         
             
             
             
             
          
             
                 
               Gene 
               Clone name 
               Accession number 
             
             
                 
                 
             
             
                 
               Spdelta 
               046A16 
               AC131451 
             
             
                 
               Lvdelta 
               129M22 
               AC146987 
             
             
                 
               Spendo 16 
               127I21 
               AC160519 
             
             
                 
               Lvendo 16 
               199M10 
               AC160518 
             
             
                 
               Spgatae 
               040I09 
               AC146984 
             
             
                 
               Lvgatae 
               032P20 
               AC131496 
             
             
                 
               Spgcm 
               033O18 
               AC131382 
             
             
                 
               Lvgcm 
               018J03 
               AC131487 
             
             
                 
               Spotx 
               006F13 
               AC131452 
             
             
                 
               Lvotx 
               229L05 
               AC131493 
             
             
                 
               Spwnt8 
               041A08 
               AC131383 
             
             
                 
               Spwnt8 
               099F11 
               AC131454 
             
             
                 
               Lvwnt8 
               183H12 
               AC131485 
             
             
                 
                 
             
          
         
       
     
   
   The starting point was to screen an  S. franciscanus  BAC library (Cameron et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2002) 97:9514-9518) so that genomic sequence in and around the test genes could be directly accessed. As summarized in  FIG. 1  and detailed in Materials and Methods, the  S. franciscanus  sequence desired for example comparisons was obtained by two different approaches. Where the sequence similarity between  L. variegatus  and  S. purpuratus  genomes was very high (that is, in particularly conserved exons and in known and putative cis-regulatory modules), elements of these sequences in pairs of PCR primers that would be expected also to recognize the orthologous  S. franciscanus  sequence were included. The intervening DNA was thereby amplified from the  S. franciscanus  BAC and could be sequenced directly. Otherwise, the  S. franciscanus  sequence was obtained by “walking” directly on the BAC DNA, beginning with a conserved primer site. Maps of the  S. purpuratus  and  S. franciscanus  cis-regulatory and flanking sequences with respect to the exonic structure of each of the five genes are shown in  FIG. 2 . 
   Divergence Processes Within cis-Regulatory Modules and in the Flanking Sequence. 
   The intrageneric sequence comparisons that were obtained for the five cis-regulatory modules and their respective nearby external sequences are shown in Table 2 and  FIG. 3  (sequence comparisons are available in  FIGS. 5(   a - k )- 10 ( a - q )). 
   
     
       
         
             
           
             
               TABLE 2 
             
           
          
             
                 
             
             
               The distribution of sequence features in the 
             
             
               active and flanking regions of six genes. 
             
          
         
         
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
          
             
                 
                 
               Indels 
               Indels 
               Indels 
               Indels 
               Indels 
             
             
               Gene 
               SNPs 
               1-5 
               6-10 
               11-15 
               16-20 
               21+ 
             
             
                 
             
          
         
         
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
          
             
               brachyury 
                 
                 
                 
                 
                 
                 
             
             
               Active 
                 550.0 
               87.5 
               25.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               Flanking 
               1,498.6 
               162.9 
               32.2 
               8.5 
               3.4 
               13.6 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.4 
               0.5 
               0.8 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               delta 
             
             
               Active 
                 636.9 
               67.0 
               13.4 
               10.1 
               3.4 
               3.4 
             
             
               Flanking 
                 880.3 
               111.6 
               18.6 
               15.1 
               1.2 
               12.8 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.7 
               0.6 
               0.7 
               0.7 
               2.9 
               0.3 
             
             
               gatae 
             
             
               Active 
                 657.0 
               33.4 
               22.3 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               Flanking 
               1,077.5 
               135.2 
               26.8 
               11.3 
               5.6 
               9.9 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.6 
               0.2 
               0.8 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               otx 
             
             
               Active 
                 287.3 
               62.8 
               9.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               Flanking 
               1,183.4 
               118.5 
               21.3 
               9.1 
               4.6 
               9.1 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.2 
               0.5 
               0.4 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               wnt8 
             
             
               Active 
                 837.6 
               110.2 
               7.3 
               7.3 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               Flanking 
               2,249.1 
               165.4 
               40.7 
               21.6 
               10.2 
               17.8 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.4 
               0.7 
               0.2 
               0.3 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               endo16 
             
             
               Active 
                 261.2 
               72.6 
               14.5 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               Flanking 
                 927.6 
               117.7 
               23.2 
               13.9 
               11.1 
               22.2 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.3 
               0.6 
               0.6 
               0.0 
               0.0 
               0.0 
             
             
               Total 
             
             
               Active 
                 556.5 
               72.7 
               14.1 
               4.7 
               1.2 
               1.2 
             
             
               Flanking 
               1,271.3 
               133.0 
               26.7 
               13.7 
               6.4 
               14.9 
             
             
               Ratio 
                  0.4 
               0.5 
               0.5 
               0.3 
               0.2 
               0.1 
             
             
                 
             
             
               The data are arranged vertically to allow comparison of the active and flanking region values. The number in each category is normalized to the length of sequence examined. The third row for each gene is the number of features in the active region divided by the number of features in the flanking region. 
             
          
         
       
     
   
   Data from comparable analyses of sequence divergence in the cis-regulatory domains of the endo16 gene within the species  S. purpuratus , has been recalculated in the same manner as that used for the  S. franciscanus - S. purpuratus  sequence comparisons obtained in this example. These results are also included in both  FIG. 3  and Table 2. The endo16 gene resides in a rapidly evolving region of the genome; for example, unlike the case for all of the other genes in this study, none of the endo16 cis-regulatory modules that were identified experimentally (Yuh et al., Development (1996) 122:4045-4056; Yuh et al., Development (1996) 122:1069-1082) display patchy sequence conservation between  S. purpuratus  and  L. variegatus  except for the proximal module A (Kirchhamer et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1996) 93:9322-9328), whereas module B is partially conserved. 
   Here, modules A and B were taken, for which every target site has been studied functionally in  S. purpuratus  (Yuh et al., 2001), and considered them as bona fide cis-regulatory modules; the upstream regions which contain the repressive modules F and E, part of D, and the distal booster module G (Yuh et al. ((1996)), are taken as the flanking sequence because it is entirely nonconserved to  L. variegatus . This maneuver is a conservative one, for there could indeed be some conservation in these regions relative to true flanking sequence. Note, however, that the intraspecific divergence of these flanking regions among the 11 different individual genomes included in this example is equivalent in magnitude to the interspecific sequence divergence for the other five genes (Table 3). 
   
     
       
         
             
           
             
               TABLE 3 
             
           
          
             
                 
             
             
                 S. franciscanus  sequence within and 
             
             
               contiguous to cis-regulatory modules. 
             
          
         
         
             
             
             
             
          
             
                 
               Gene 
               BAC clone 
               Accession number 
             
             
                 
                 
             
             
                 
               Sfbra 
               24O17 
               DQ088382 
             
             
                 
               Sfdelta 
               35H4 
               DQ088383 
             
             
                 
               Sfgatae 
               21N5 
               DQ088384 
             
             
                 
               Sfotx 
               48I10 
               DQ088385 
             
             
                 
               Sfwnt8 
               12H20 
               DQ088386 
             
             
                 
                 
             
          
         
       
     
   
   This divergence was compared with that among three different alleles of modules A and B. 
   Comparison within vs. outside the cis-regulatory regions consistently yielded two revealing statistics. First, single base pair changes and small indels indeed occur frequently within the cis-regulatory module sequences (shown on the right side of each graph in  FIG. 3 ). In contrast, as shown on the left side of the graphs, larger indels are almost totally suppressed inside the regulatory modules with respect to their rate of occurrence in the flanking sequence. 
   A simple Poisson metric shows that in five of the six cases (i.e., except for the gatae module), long indel suppression is highly improbable (P&lt;0.05) on random expectation, using the rate of occurrence of the large indel class in the flanking sequence as the model expectation. Larger indels are lacking within the gatae regulatory module as well but are also sufficiently rare in the flanking sequence to obscure the inside/outside difference. Details are given for each gene in the legend of  FIG. 3 . These comparisons indicate that the patchy sequence conservation relative to flanking regions of the genome that is so useful for identification of cis-regulatory modules suggest two separate causes. An important qualitative difference is the near absence of large indels within conserved modules; in addition, there is typically an ≈30-50% decrease in the frequency of small changes within conserved modules, which could be due to restriction in change inside and immediately adjacent to target sites. Outside the modules, the much greater change in nearby sequence is due to not only accumulation of single-base changes and small indels but also the occurrence of large indels. Another gene in which evolution is proceeding at a particularly rapid rate is the gcm gene. Here, as illustrated in  FIG. 4 , there is a remarkable incidence of large indels, which distinguish two alleles recovered from different  S. purpuratus  genomes. However, these large indels again occur exclusively outside, not inside, the known cis-regulatory modules. 
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   Although the invention has been described with reference to the above examples, it will be understood that modifications and variations are encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is limited only by the following claims.