Zinc-finger proteins structure

Examples (a) nucleosome K Huger, AW Mader, RK Richmond, DF Sargent, TJ Richmond. Nature 389 251-260, 1997 (b) DNA polymerases CA Brautigam, TA Steitz. Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 8 54-63, 1998 (c) single-stranded binding protein Y Shamoo, AM Friedman, MR Parsons, WH Konigsberg, TA Steitz. Nature 376 362-366, 1995 (d) restriction endonucleases RA Kovall, BW Matthews. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 3 578-583, 1999 (e) DNA lig-ase S Shuman. Structure 4 653-656, 1996 (f) DNA helicases MC Hall, SW Matson. Mol. Microbiol. 34 867-877, 1999 (g) zinc-finger proteins Y Choo, JW Schwabe. Nat. Struct. Biol. 5 253-255, 1998. 

There is significant interest in zinc sulfide, selenide, and oxide materials and while extensive discussion is not appropriate here, a number of novel complexes that have been developed for their deposition characteristics of these important semiconductors will be highlighted in the context of the ligand types. Zinc has also been used in supramolecular building blocks as a structural element, much as in zinc finger proteins. In these cases the lack of redox chemistry is... 

Varying ratios of the ligands 7V-(2-thiophenyl)-2,5-dimethylpyrrole and V-methylimidazole were used to form tetrahedral zinc complexes with S4, S3N, and S2N2 coordination spheres. X-ray structural analyses and IR spectra were recorded for all compounds and the relevance to zinc finger proteins was discussed. The comparison to cobalt and cadmium structures showed only minor differences, supporting the theory that changes on substituting these metals into zinc proteins would be minor.538... 

Zinc is a constituent of over 300 enzymes with much research into the coordination of zinc to the protein backbone, and how its chemistry is modulated by the donor set and environment.2 As well as the Lewis acid catalysis properties in enzymes, the structural role in zinc finger proteins has been a major area of research since the late 1990s. A number of reviews on zinc physiology, enzymology, and proteins in general have been published.978-981 There is extensive analysis available to classify the mononuclear sites in zinc proteins and identification of structural relationships of the extended environment.982,983... 

Another area in which Zn(II) complexes play an important role concerns the recognition of CysaHisa zinc-finger protein domains, which exhibit a characteristic tetrahedral structure as shown in Figure 7. More than 4000 such domains are present in over 700 proteins . 

The coordination of cis-diammineplatinumill) to guanine bases in DNA is only one example of a large number of possibilities. The Mg ion has several important functions with respect to DNA and RNA structure and action Nature has also anticipated the chemist through the use of zinc finger proteins as DNA transcriptional faclors. They have a protein chain coordinated tetr hedrally to a zinc atom by... 

We have already seen a number of models for the zinc(II) containing enzymes such as carbonic anhydrase in Section 11.3.2. Zinc is an essential component in biochemistry, and forms part of the active site of more then 100 enzymes, of which hydrolases (such as alkaline phosphatase and carboxypeptidase A), transferases (e.g. DNA and RNA polymerase), oxidoreductases (e.g. alcohol dehydrogenase and superoxide dismutase) and lysases (carbonic anhydrase) are the most common. In addition, the non-enzyme zinc finger proteins have an important regulatory function. In many of these systems, the non-redox-active Zn2+ ion is present as a Fewis acidic centre at which substrates are coordinated, polarised and hence activated. Other roles of zinc include acting as a template and playing a structural or regulatory role. 

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