PREDetector : Prokaryotic Regulatory Element Detector

Background: In the post-genomic area, in silico predictions of regulatory networks are considered as a powerful approach to decipher and understand biological pathways within prokaryotic cells. The emergence of position weight matrices based programs has facilitated the access to this approach. However, a tool that automatically estimates the reliability of the predictions and would allow users to extend predictions in genomic regions generally regarded with no regulatory functions was still highly demanded.

Result: Here, we introduce PREDetector, a tool developed for predicting regulons of DNA-binding proteins in prokaryotic genomes that (i) automatically predicts, scores and positions potential binding sites and their respective target genes, (ii) includes the downstream co-regulated genes, (iii) extends the predictions to coding sequences and terminator regions, (iv) saves private matrices and allows predictions in other genomes, and (v) provides an easy way to estimate the reliability of the predictions.

Conclusion: We present, with PREDetector, an accurate prokaryotic regulon prediction tool that maximally answers biologists’ requests. PREDetector can be downloaded freely at http://www.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~hiard/predetectorfr.html