Polyadenylation Site Prediction
Introduction
Introduction
Polyadenylation is a process that takes place after transcription termination. It involves cleavage of the new transcript (mRNA), followed by template-independent addition of adenines at its newly synthesized 3’ end. The cleavage site is called polyadenylation site or, in short, poly(A) site. Polyadenylation is considered to be part of the larger process of producing mature mRNA for translation. The aim of the polyadenylation process is to protect the mRNA in order to reach intact the protein synthesis site.
Nowadays, the research in this field is focused on discovering new cis-regulatory elements and on predicting the poly(A) site accurately. The accurate prediction of poly(A) site is a crucial step to define gene boundaries and get an insight in transcription termination in eukaryotes, which is a process less well understood.
In our research group we have been working on the project of polyadenylation site prediction for quite a while and have developed a tool that can be used in analyzing and predicting poly(A) sites. You can find this tool at the tools section of our web site. Moreover, we have been experimenting with real world datasets that are available at the datasets section.