PEAKS: identification of regulatory motifs by their position in DNA sequences

Many DNA functional motifs tend to accumulate or cluster at specific gene locations. These locations can be detected, in a group of gene sequences, as high frequency 'peaks' with respect to a reference position, such as the transcription start site (TSS). We have developed a web tool for the identification of regions containing significant motif peaks. We show, by using different yeast gene datasets, that peak regions are strongly enriched in experimentally-validated motifs and contain potentially important novel motifs.