Zinc finger protein

A zinc finger protein is a DNA-binding protein domain comprised of zinc fingers ranging from two in the Drosophila regulator ADR1, the more common three in mammalian Sp1 up to nine in TFIIIA. They occur in nature as the part of transcription factors conferring DNA sequence specificity as the DNA-binding domain.

They have also found use in protein engineering due to their modularity and have prospects as components of tools for use in therapeutic gene modulation and zinc finger nucleases.