Deciphering metal ion preference and primary coordination sphere robustness of a designed zinc finger with high-resolution mass spectrometry.

ABSTRACT: Small zinc finger (ZnF) motifs are promising molecular scaffolds for protein design owing to their structural robustness and versatility. Moreover, their characterization provides important insights into protein folding in general. ZnF motifs usually possess an exceptional specificity and high affinity towards Zn(II) ion to drive folding. While the Zn(II) ion is canonically coordinated by two cysteine and two histidine residues, many other coordination spheres also exist in small ZnFs, all having four amino acid ligands. Here we used high-resolution mass spectrometry to study metal ion binding specificity and primary coordination sphere robustness of a designed zinc finger, named MM1. Based on the results, MM1 possesses high specificity for zinc with sub-micromolar binding affinity. Surpri

SUBMITTER: Laitaoja M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5275728 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature