Figure 3From: Transcriptional and structural impact of TATA-initiation site spacing in mammalian core promotersThe spacing between TATA box and the dominant TSS is associated with transcriptional specificity. (a) Tissue specificity (measured as median relative entropy) for promoters with different TATA-TSS spacing. Positions with 20 counts or more are shown as red dots with standard error bars. (b) Histogram showing number of promoters with the TATA box located at a given position. In both plots, only the most prominent TATA box is considered in each promoter. Both representations indicate that most functional TATA boxes reside in a narrow 4 bp window from positions -32 to -29, dominated by positions -31 and -30. The rapid decrease in site counts and transcriptional specificity downstream of -29 suggests that 28 bp is the minimal TATA-TSS distance for TATA-driven initiation; it might also have functional properties distinct from more favorable spacings (see main text). bp, base pair; TSS, transcription start site.Back to article page