COMPEL: a database on composite regulatory elements providing combinatorial transcriptional regulation

COMPEL-is a database on composite regulatory elements, the basic structures of combinatorial regulation. Composite regulatory elements contain two clo sely situated binding sites for distinct transcription factors and represen t minimal functional units providing combinatorial transcriptional regulati on, Both specific factor-DNA and factor-factor interactions contribute to t he function of composite elements (CEs), Information about the structure of known CEs and specific gene regulation achieved through such CEs appears t o be extremely useful for promoter prediction, for gene function prediction and for applied gene engineering as well, The structure of the relational model of COMPEL is determined by the concept of molecular structure and reg ulatory role of CEs. Based on the set of a particular CE, a program has bee n developed for searching potential CEs in gene regulatory regions, WWW sea rch and browse routines were developed for COMPEL release 3.0, The COMPEL d atabase equipped with the search and browse tools is available at http://co mpel.bionet.nsc.ru/, The program for prediction of potential CEs of NEAT ty pe is available at http://compel.bionet.nsc.ru/FunSite.html and http://tran sf ac.gbf.de/dbsearch/funsitep/s_comp.html.