R. Rosenfeld et H. Margalit, ZINC FINGERS - CONSERVED PROPERTIES THAT CAN DISTINGUISH BETWEEN SPURIOUS AND ACTUAL DNA-BINDING MOTIFS, Journal of biomolecular structure & dynamics, 11(3), 1993, pp. 557-570
The zinc finger, one of the major structural motifs used for sequence
specific DNA binding, has been identified in many regulatory proteins.
By analogy, involvement in nucleic acid recognition has been implied
for proteins that contain two cysteines and two histidines, spaced in
accordance with the zinc finger motif. In this study we identify seque
nce dependent characteristics that are conserved in the DNA-binding zi
nc fingers and are probably required for a functional DNA-binding zinc
finger. Examination of the conserved properties in view of the solved
three dimensional structure of a zinc finger, confirms the importance
of most of these properties. The absence of the identified physical-c
hemical characteristics from CCHH containing sequences of non-DNA bind
ing proteins suggest that they can be used to distinguish between spur
ious and actual DNA binding zinc fingers.