# Creating Comprehensive Maps of Worm and Fly Transcription Factor Binding Sites

> **NIH NIH U41** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2021 · $2,382,034

## Abstract

Abstract
Our project seeks to identify the regulatory elements recognized by essentially all of
transcription factors (TFs) in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the nematode
Caenorhabditis elegans. Transcription factors (TFs) play key roles in diverse aspects of
development and physiology. A catalog of sites where transcription factors bind (regulatory
sequences) is perhaps only second in importance to a catalog of genes in understanding how a
genome specifies an organism. First as part of modENCODE and over the past grant cycle as
the independent modern program, we will have generated about 800 ChIP-seq profiles (440
worm, 380 fly) for more than 600 transcription factors (280 worm, 340 fly). Building on this
progress in this proposal we seek: 1) to complete an initial catalog of binding sites for all
transcription factors in both D. melanogaster and C. elegans; 2) to validate these sites through
measuring the impact of transcription factor loss on the expression of genes; 3) to integrate
binding sites and gene expression profiles both with one another and with other available
information to develop models of gene expression and gene regulatory networks. All of the
strain resources and data will be made publicly available on a timely basis throughout the
project. These catalogs will represent the first comprehensive description of the TF binding
sites in any metazoan and will provide a context for understanding the catalog of TF binding
sites that will emerge from ENCODE.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10136666
- **Project number:** 5U41HG007355-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** ROBERT H WATERSTON
- **Activity code:** U41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $2,382,034
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-09-20 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10136666

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10136666, Creating Comprehensive Maps of Worm and Fly Transcription Factor Binding Sites (5U41HG007355-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10136666. Licensed CC0.

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