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DNA-binding proteins are proteins that are composed of DNA-binding domains and thus have a specific or general affinity for either single or double stranded DNA. Sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins generally interact with the major groove of B-DNA, because it exposes more functional groups that identify a base pair.

DNA-binding proteins include transcription factors which modulate the process of transcription, nucleases which cleave DNA molecules, and histones which are involved in chromosome packaging in the cell nucleus. DNA-binding proteins can incorporate such domains as the zinc finger, the helix-turn-helix, and the leucine zipper (among many others) that facilitate binding to nucleic acid. There are 8 structural families of DNA binding proteins.^{citation needed}

See also

• Single-strand binding protein

References

External links

• Ascalaph DNA tool for modeling DNA-ligand interactions.
• DBD database of predicted transcription factors^[1] Uses a curated set of DNA-binding domains to predict transcription factors in all completely sequenced genomes
• MeSH DNA-Binding+Proteins

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