Computational Biology Solutions to Identify Enhancers-target Gene Pairs

Judith Mary Hariprakash, Francesco Ferrari

DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2019.06.012

Enhancers are non-coding regulatory elements that are distant from their target gene. Their characterization still remains elusive especially due to challenges in achieving a comprehensive pairing of enhancers and target genes.

We expect this field will keep evolving in the coming years due to the ever-growing availability of data and increasing insights into enhancers crucial role in regulating genome functionality.

Enhancers are distal regulatory elements with a crucial role in controlling the expression of genes. From many point of views they are analogous to promoters, but they are located at a larger distance from the transcription start site (TSS) of the gene they regulate. Enhancers act through the binding of transcription factors just like promoters. However, elucidating the function of enhancers remains more elusive for multiple reasons.