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Generation of high specificity of effect through low‐specificity binding of proteins to DNA
Author(s) -
Zuckerkandl Emile,
Villet Ruxton
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(88)80836-6
Subject(s) - polynucleotide , dna , gene , genetics , computational biology , biology , function (biology) , psychological repression , sequence (biology) , nucleotide , biochemistry , gene expression
It is proposed that proteins can bind with relatively low‐affinity and specificity to multiple sites, defined as sequence motifs, on polynucleotide chains, and that such binding can collectively be turned into high‐affinity, high‐specificity binding through cooperative effects, especially when the sequence motifs recur periodically. The selection of individual nucleotides has in general been thought to be the condition of the existence and conservation of function in most of the noncoding sequences. This condition seems unnecessary. Calculations are presented as a step in the direction of giving credibility to a model of stable gene repression.