Regulation of the Central Dogma through Bioinorganic Events with Metal Coordination for Specific Interactions

Abstract

The central dogma is the core aspect of biological system regulation, receiving much attention from the field of biological chemistry. One of the main regulators of transcription and translation processes is the zinc finger (ZF) proteins, one or more domains of which coordinate with a zinc ion to interact with their binding partner. ZFs are modular domains that function independently in the presence of Zn2+ through the generation of short secondary structures via zinc ion coordination, which generate hydrogen bonds, despite being considered structural domains. In this review, structural and functional characteristics of ZF domains will be presented from the perspective of inorganic biochemistry. The major role of ZF domains in the central dogma involves transcriptional regulation through interactions with DNA and translational regulation through the generation of complexes with RNA. These findings indicate that the triggering many biological events can be explained by the coordination and biophysical chemistry of ZFs.