%A Cheng Zhu, Changsheng Zhang, Huanhuan Liang, Luhua Lai %T Engineering a zinc binding site into the de novo designed protein DS119 with a βαβ structure %0 Journal Article %D 2011 %J Protein Cell %J Protein & Cell %@ 1674-800X %R 10.1007/s13238-011-1121-3 %P 1006-1013 %V 2 %N 12 %U {https://journal.hep.com.cn/pac/EN/10.1007/s13238-011-1121-3 %8 2011-12-01 %X

Functional proteins designed de novo have potential application in chemical engineering, agriculture and healthcare. Metal binding sites are commonly used to incorporate functions. Based on a de novo designed protein DS119 with a βαβ structure, we have computationally engineered zinc binding sites into it using a home-made searching program. Seven out of the eight designed sequences tested were shown to bind Zn2+ with micromolar affinity, and one of them bound Zn2+ with 1:1 stoichiometry. This is the first time that metalloproteins with an α, β mixed structure have been designed from scratch.