Molecular basis for intracellular zinc-responsive system and its application as the imaging sensor for heavy metals.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

MTF-1 is a heavy-metal dependent transcription factor and the molecular basis of its response to heavy metals is thought to be useful for developing a novel sensor system for heavy metals. Using various deletion and point mutatnts of MTF-1, we found that the Zn-finger domain does not solely function as the DNA-binding domain, but it plays multifunctional roles for the responses of MTF-1 against heavy metals. This indicates that the Zn-finger domain of MTF-1 is a useful module to design a novel artificial molecule for sensing heavy metals.