Balance between asymmetry and abundance in multi-domain DNA-binding proteins may regulate the kinetics of their binding to DNA
Fig 10
A schematic illustration on the linkage between asymmetry and abundance and its consequence on recognition kinetics.
The finding that zinc finger proteins with greater non-specific asymmetry are less abundant than protein with lower non-specific asymmetry can be linked to their kinetic of DNA recognition. Proteins with lower asymmetry are expected to diffuse more slowly on DNA, which can be compensated by their higher abundance that increases the probability of fruitful target site recognition. Proteins with greater asymmetry diffuse faster and therefore may search the DNA efficiently even when their abundance is low.