探討C2H2鋅指蛋白質的非典型核定位訊號和其與去氧核醣核酸結合特異性之關係

Abstract

鋅指(zinc finger)蛋白是真核細胞內常見的轉錄因子，蛋白質鋅指區域主要可分為8種pattern groups，本研究以最常見的C2H2 pattern group為主。本研究先從已知結構的鋅指蛋白和去氧核醣核酸(DNA)中計算分析其厭水性、殘基溫度因子、蛋白質中的緊密程度、序列保存度等性質。

相關報告更進一步指出，某一段鋅指區域亦可以作為非典型之核定位訊號(non-classical nuclear location sequence, ncNLS)，以協助鋅指蛋白進入細胞進行功用。本研究收集在前人研究中已被確認為ncNLS相關的10個鋅指蛋白，對其進行序列相關定位點分析，以探討鋅指蛋白和去氧核醣核酸的特異性結合點與鋅指蛋白中的非典型之核定位訊號位置之共同相關性。

Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are a kind of transcription factor, which are quite common in eukaryotic cells. According to their structural diversities, they were classified into eight pattern groups. In this study is major in C2H2 pattern group, which is one of the most common structural domains in eukaryotes.

Mostly, a nuclear transport of proteins is usually containing a sequence segment of nuclear localization signal (NLS), which is recognized for nuclear import to form a transport complex. Until now, a lot of researches indicate the zinc finger motif of zinc finger protein that can be non-classical nuclear location sequence (ncNLS) to transport protein into nucleus.

In this study, analyzing the features of C2H2 zinc finger proteins with DNA present from structure and sequence. The features are such as hydrophobicity, B-factor, and protein packing density and sequence conservation. And then searched the C2H2 ZF motifs already as ncNLS from previous experimental study. Then using multiple sequences align for specific position analysis, we are trying to find the relationship between DNA binding specificity and ncNLS for C2H2 ZFP.