Regulome

Regulome refers to the whole set of regulatory components in a cell. Those components can be regulatory elements, genes, mRNAs, proteins, and metabolites. The description includes the interplay of regulatory effects between these components, and their dependence on variables such as subcellular localization, tissue, developmental stage, and pathological state. Regulome refers to the whole set of regulatory components in a cell. Those components can be regulatory elements, genes, mRNAs, proteins, and metabolites. The description includes the interplay of regulatory effects between these components, and their dependence on variables such as subcellular localization, tissue, developmental stage, and pathological state. One of the major players in cellular regulation are transcription factors, proteins that regulate the expression of genes. Other proteins that bind to transcription factors to form transcriptional complexes might modify the activity of transcription factors, for example blocking their capacity to bind to a promoter. Signaling pathways are groups of proteins that produce an effect in a chain that transmit a signal from one part of the cell to another part, for example, linking the presence of substance at the exterior of the cell to the activation of the expression of a gene. High-throughput technologies for the analysis of biological samples (for example, DNA microarrays, proteomics analysis) allow the measurement of thousands of biological components such as mRNAs, proteins, or metabolites. Chromatin immunoprecipitation of transcription factors can be used to map transcription factor binding sites in the genome.