Zinc-finger proteins (ZFPs) are the largest transcription factor family in human genome. They have recently become an area of intense study because of their broad range of biological functions, including development, differentiation, metabolism, autophagy, cancer progression and more recently because they are attractive targets for antiviral therapy [1]. The zinc fingers was first recognized as...

Binary vectors are an indispensable component of modern Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated plant genetic transformation systems. A remarkable variety of binary plasmids have been developed to support the cloning and transfer of foreign genes into plant cells. The majority of these systems, however, are limited to the cloning and transfer of just a single gene of interest. Thus, plant biologists...

PURPOSE Human Usher syndrome (USH) is the most frequent cause of inherited deaf-blindness. It is clinically and genetically heterogeneous, assigned to three clinical types of which the most severe type is USH1. No effective treatment for the ophthalmic component of USH exists. Gene augmentation is an attractive strategy for hereditary retinal diseases. However, several USH genes, like USH1C, ar...

Protein-protein interactions play significant roles in the control of gene expression. These interactions often occur between small, discrete domains within different transcription factors. In particular, zinc fingers, usually regarded as DNA-binding domains, are now also known to be involved in mediating contacts between proteins. We have investigated the interaction between the erythroid tran...

Modulating gene expression directly at the DNA level represents a novel approach to control cellular processes. In this respect, zinc finger protein DNA-binding domains can be engineered to target virtually any gene. Coupling of a transcription activation or repression domain to these zinc fingers permits regulating gene expression at will, providing a platform of unlimited therapeutic applicat...

The generation efficiencies of mutation-induced mice when using engineered zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) have been generally 10 to 20% of obtained pups in previous studies. The discovery of high-affinity DNA-binding modules can contribute to the generation of various kinds of novel artificial chromatin-targeting tools, such as zinc-finger acetyltransferases, zinc-finger histone kinases and so on...

Manipulation of gene expression on a genome-wide level is one of the most important systematic tools in the post-genome era. Such manipulations have largely been enabled by expression cloning approaches using sequence-verified cDNA libraries, large-scale RNA interference libraries (shRNA or siRNA) and zinc finger nuclease technologies. More recently, the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced ...

To facilitate the construction of genetically-modified pigs, we produced cloned embryos derived from porcine fibroblasts transfected with a pair of engineered zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) plasmids to create targeted mutations and enriched using a reporter plasmid system. The reporter expresses RFP and eGFP simultaneously when ZFN-mediated site-specific mutations occur. Thus, double positive cells...

Our ability to precisely and efficiently edit mammalian and plant genomes has been significantly improved in recent years, partially due to increasing use of designer nucleases that recognize a pre-determined DNA sequence, make a specific DNA double-strand break, and stimulate gene targeting. A pair of zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) or transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) that...

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have prioritized a transcription factor, nuclear receptor 2 family 2 (NR2F2), as being associated with essential hypertension in humans. Here we provide evidence that validates this association and indicates that Nr2f2 is a genetic determinant of blood pressure (BP). Using the zinc-finger nuclease technology, the generation of a targeted Nr2f2-edited rat m...