Non-FokI-based zinc finger nucleases

Abstract

The design of functional proteins is one of the most challenging areas of protein research. We have constructed zinc finger peptides with metal-dependent hydrolytic abilities by mutating the zinc ligands in classical zinc fingers, without the need to add a FokI or other DNA cleavage domain. The designed peptides acquired DNA cleavage ability successfully, retaining the proper zinc finger folding and DNA targeting ability. We have also succeeded in site-specific DNA cleavage in the presence of cerium ions by introducing a lanthanide ion-binding loop as a linker of zinc finger motifs. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.