Looking into DNA recognition: zinc finger binding specificity.

ABSTRACT: We present a quantitative, theoretical analysis of the recognition mechanisms used by two zinc finger proteins: Zif268, which selectively binds to GC-rich sequences, and a Zif268 mutant, which binds to a TATA box site. This analysis is based on a recently developed method (ADAPT), which allows binding specificity to be analyzed via the calculation of complexation energies for all possible DNA target sequences. The results obtained with the zinc finger proteins show that, although both mainly select their targets using direct, pairwise protein-DNA interactions, they also use sequence-dependent DNA deformation to enhance their selectivity. A new extension of our methodology enables us to determine the quantitative contribution of these two components and also to measure the contributions of

SUBMITTER: Paillard G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC545445 | biostudies-literature | 2004

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature