ThesisAuthors: O'Lone, Raegan Brie (2006)
Estrogen receptors (ERs) are cell-specific mediators of physiological changes. They act primarily as transcriptional regulators through binding DNA at specific target sequences, such as estrogen response elements (EREs), within gene regulatory regions. Few primary target genes of ERs have been identified, especially in nonreproductive tissues such as the vasculature, where estrogen responses impact both sexes. I initially utilized a bioinformatics approach to characterize known ER-regulated promoters, both with regards to primary estrogen response elements and to secondary transcription factor binding sites that may coregulate estrogen responses. Secondary promoter elements were identified as being overrepresented in promoters containing palindromic EREs The involvement of these pre... 
