title: Timeline: Z-DNA: the long road to biological function.
abstract: Biologists were puzzled by the discovery of left-handed Z-DNA because it seemed unnecessary. Z-DNA was stabilized by the negative supercoiling generated by transcription, which indicated a transient localized conformational change. Few laboratories worked on the biology of Z-DNA. However, the discovery that certain classes of proteins bound to Z-DNA with high affinity and great specificity indicated a biological role. The most recent data show that some of these proteins participate in the pathology of poxviruses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 68-233, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rich
authors.forename: Shuguang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004278:DNA, Superhelical / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004278:DNA, Superhelical; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins