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Zinc Finger Database (ZiFDB): a repository for information on C2H2 zinc fingers and engineered zinc-finger arrays
Nucleic Acids Research
  • Fengli Fu, Iowa State University
  • Jeffry D. Sander, Iowa State University
  • Morgan Maeder, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Stacey Thibodeau-Beganny, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • J. Keith Joung, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
  • Drena L. Dobbs, Iowa State University
  • Leslie Miller, Iowa State University
  • Daniel F. Voytas, University of Minnesota
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1-1-2008
DOI
10.1093/nar/gkn606
Abstract

Zinc fingers are the most abundant DNA-binding motifs encoded by eukaryotic genomes and one of the best understood DNA-recognition domains. Each zinc finger typically binds a 3-nt target sequence, and it is possible to engineer zinc-finger arrays (ZFAs) that recognize extended DNA sequences by linking together individual zinc fingers. Engineered zinc-finger proteins have proven to be valuable tools for gene regulation and genome modification because they target specific sites in a genome. Here we describe ZiFDB (Zinc Finger Database;http://bindr.gdcb.iastate.edu/ZiFDB), a web-accessible resource that compiles information on individual zinc fingers and engineered ZFAs. To enhance its utility, ZiFDB is linked to the output from ZiFiT—a software package that assists biologists in finding sites within target genes for engineering zinc-finger proteins. For many molecular biologists, ZiFDB will be particularly valuable for determining if a given ZFA (or portion thereof) has previously been constructed and whether or not it has the requisite DNA-binding activity for their experiments. ZiFDB will also be a valuable resource for those scientists interested in better understanding how zinc-finger proteins recognize target DNA.

Comments

This article is from Nucleic Acids Research 3 (2009): D279–D283, doi:10.1093/nar/gkn606. Posted with permission.

Rights
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright Owner
Tha Authors
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Fengli Fu, Jeffry D. Sander, Morgan Maeder, Stacey Thibodeau-Beganny, et al.. "Zinc Finger Database (ZiFDB): a repository for information on C2H2 zinc fingers and engineered zinc-finger arrays" Nucleic Acids Research Vol. 37 Iss. Supplement 1 (2008) p. D279 - D283
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/drena-dobbs/7/