Computer simulation of zinc finger motifs from cellular nucleic acid binding protein and their interaction with consensus DNA sequences.

We report here a computer simulation of the three-dimensional structures of seven zinc finger motifs from cellular nucleic acid binding protein involved in negative feedback inhibition of cholesterol biosynthesis. The structures are optimised using steric constraints imposed by tetrahedral coordination of the zinc ion with Cys and His residues, by molecular mechanics technique. We have also optimised the structure of a finger-I with GpT sequence. The model for the interaction of seven fingered protein with single-stranded d(GTGCGGTG) from sterol regulatory element (SRE) is given on the basis of these results. We also propose a scheme for recognition of a multifingered regulatory protein with small single-stranded DNA fragments.