Very interesting paper revealing: -that the number of conserved non-genic sequences shared between mammalian and fish genomes is at least an order of magnitude higher than previously proposed and is spread across thousands of genes (i.e. not restricted to trans-dev genes). The trick is to search not using global alignments, but allowing for reshuffling of conserved elements (only 1/3 is positionally conserved between fish/mammalia). -apparently the first 1kb upstream of TSS seems more rigid, explaining why for e.g. HOX genes (e.g. trans-dev) global alignments approaches work as good as local alignment approaches. -- ================================================================== Klaas Vandepoele, PhD Tel. 32 (0)9 3313822 DEPARTMENT OF PLANT SYSTEMS BIOLOGY VIB/GHENT UNIVERSITY, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Gent, Belgium E-mail: Klaas.Vandepoele@psb.ugent.be Website: http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/ ==================================================================