Each zinc finger domain recognizes:
Specificity principle of C2H2 zinc finger modular recognition lies in each finger contacting three base pairs. Structural biology of Zif268-DNA complex by Pavletich and Pabo 1991 revealed that alpha helix of each finger inserts into major groove, amino acid residues at positions -1, 2, 3 and 6 relative to helix start make sequence-specific contacts. Triplet code allows prediction: for example Arg at -1 contacts guanine, Asp at 2 contacts cytosine, pattern learned from SELEX. Therefore three finger protein recognizes 9 bp, four finger 12 bp, six finger 18 bp. Context dependence exists because n
Ref: Pavletich Pabo Science 1991 252:809 Zif finger 3 bp; Wolfe Ann Rev Biophys 2000; Beerli 2002.