SYNTHESIS AND DNA-BINDING ABILITY OF SP1 PROTEIN ZINC-FINGER DOMAIN AND ITS PEPTIDOMIMETICS

The second zinc finger fragment of Sp1 (Sp1-ZF2), its mutant (Sp1-ZF2/ HT. E-20 --> H, R-23 --> T), and two mimic analogues (ZF20 and ZF15) w ere synthesized by stepwise solid phase technique. The CD spectra and UV-visible spectrum with CoCl2 indicated that the formation of zinc fi nger structure was affected not only by the hydrophobic amino acids bu t also by the change of the distance between Cys and His. Gel-retardat ion electrophoresis assays indicated that the Glu and Arg residues are very important for recognition. A single zinc finger like Sp1-ZF2 is able to bind DNA sequence specifically.