简介：Asystematicphylogeneticfootprintingapproachwasperformedtoidentifycon-servedtranscriptionfactorbindingsites(TFBSs)inmammalianpromoterregionsusinghuman,mouseandratsequencealignments.Wefoundthatthescoredis-tributionsofmostbindingsitemodelsdidnotfollowtheGaussiandistributionrequiredbymanystatisticalmethods.Therefore,weperformedanempiricaltesttoestablishtheoptimalthresholdforeachmodel.WegaugedourcomputationalpredictionsbycomparingwithpreviouslyknownTFBSsinthePCK1genepro-moterofthecytosolicisoformofphosphoenolpyruvatecarboxykinase,andachievedasensitivityof75%andaspecificityofapproximately32%.Almostallknownsitesoverlappedwithpredictedsites,andseveralnewputativeTFBSswerealsoidentified.WevalidatedapredictedSP1bindingsiteinthecontrolofPCK1tran-scriptionusinggelshiftandreporterassays.Finally,weappliedourcomputationalapproachtothepredictionofputativeTFBSswithinthepromoterregionsofallavailableRefSeqgenes.OurfullsetofTFBSpredictionsisfreelyavailableathttp://bfgl.anri.barc.usda.gov/tfbsConsSites.