Analysis of the Positively and Non-Positively Selected Non-Protein Coding Sequences of Human Chromosome 16

The majority of the human genome consists of non-protein coding sequences of unknown function. A pipeline for predicting the functionality of these sequences utilizing selection algorithms from the HapMap project to identify SNPs, a mirror UCSC Genome Browser site to collect SNP flanking sequences, and finally the TRANSFAC database to discover homology to known regulatory sites is described herein. It was found that around three quarters of the non-coding SNP flanking sequences of human chromosome 16 (a) may play a significant role in transcription regulation, and (b) are on average 5kb closer to genes than non-coding SNPs as a whole.