Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Genome-wide Snapshot of Chromatin Regulators and States in Xenopus Embryos by ChIP-Seq
Published on: February 26, 2015
Zinc fingers: conserved properties that can distinguish between spurious and actual DNA-binding motifs
1Department of Molecular Genetics, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Abstract:
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 sequence dependent characteristics that are conserved in the DNA-binding zinc 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-chemical characteristics from CCHH containing sequences of non-DNA binding proteins suggest that they can be used to distinguish between spurious and actual DNA binding zinc fingers.
Related Concept Videos
Conservation of Protein Domains Over Different Proteins
A limited set of protein domains often duplicate and recombine during evolution. These domains can be organized in different combinations to form...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally analyses the...
Cis-regulatory Sequences
Cooperative Binding of Transcription Regulators
Single-Strand DNA Binding Proteins
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally analyses the...

