Rich Alexander, Zhang Shuguang
Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 68-233, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Nat Rev Genet. 2003 Jul;4(7):566-72. doi: 10.1038/nrg1115.
Biologists were puzzled by the discovery of left-handed Z-DNA because it seemed unnecessary. Z-DNA was stabilized by the negative supercoiling generated by transcription, which indicated a transient localized conformational change. Few laboratories worked on the biology of Z-DNA. However, the discovery that certain classes of proteins bound to Z-DNA with high affinity and great specificity indicated a biological role. The most recent data show that some of these proteins participate in the pathology of poxviruses.
生物学家们对左旋Z-DNA的发现感到困惑，因为它似乎毫无必要。Z-DNA通过转录产生的负超螺旋得以稳定，这表明了一种短暂的局部构象变化。很少有实验室研究Z-DNA的生物学特性。然而，某些种类的蛋白质能够以高亲和力和高特异性与Z-DNA结合这一发现表明其具有生物学作用。最新数据显示，其中一些蛋白质参与了痘病毒的致病过程。
