Inference of transcriptional regulation using gene expression data from the bovine and human genomes

Background Gene expression is in part regulated by sequences in promoters that bind transcription factors. Thus, co-expressed genes may have shared sequence motifs representing putative transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs). However, for agriculturally important animals the genomic sequence is often incomplete. The more complete human genome may be able to be used for this prediction by taking advantage of the expected evolutionary conservation in TFBSs between the species.