Identification of Egr1 Direct Target Genes in the Uterus by In Silico Analyses with Expression Profiles from mRNA Microarray Data

Early growth response 1 (Egr1) is a zinc-finger transcription factor to direct second-wave gene expression leading to cell growth, differentiation and/or apoptosis. While it is well-known that Egr1 controls transcription of an array of targets in various cell types, downstream target gene(s) whose transcription is regulated by Egr1 in the uterus has not been identified yet. Thus, we have tried to identify a list of potential target genes of Egr1 in the uterus by performing multi-step in silico promoter analyses. Analyses of mRNA microarray data provided a cohort of genes (102 genes) which were differentially expressed (DEGs) in the uterus between Egr1(+/+) and Egr1(–/–) mice. In mice, the frequency of putative EGR1 binding sites (EBS) in the promoter of DEGs is significantly higher than that of randomly selected non-DEGs, although it is not correlated with expression levels of DEGs. Furthermore, EBS are considerably enriched within –500 bp of DEG’s promoters. Comparative analyses for EBS of DEGs with the promoters of other species provided power to distinguish DEGs with higher probability as EGR1 direct target genes. Eleven EBS in the promoters of 9 genes among analyzed DEGs are conserved between various species including human. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that analyses of mRNA expression profiles followed by two-step in silico analyses could provide a list of putative Egr1 direct target genes in the uterus where any known direct target genes are yet reported for further functional studies.