FIG. 1.

A short synthetic peptide is able to disrupt the interaction of Zta with DNA. The schematic diagram of the rationale for this approach is shown in panel A. The bZIP region of Zta with the basic, DNA contact domain shown in black and the coiled coil region in grey are indicated. On the right, the short synthetic peptide (white box) interacts with the coiled coil region and prevents homodimerization and thus DNA binding. The ability of 10 nmol of ZEDpep to reduce the ability of full-length Zta to interact with a ZRE was evaluated by EMSA at 20°C. The reaction components were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and EMSA, and the relative amounts of Zta protein were calculated.