Towards a Black‐Box for Biological EXAFS Data Analysis — I. Identification of Zinc Finger Proteins

EXAFS allows the determination of metal binding motifs in proteins. Here we present an algorithm for the identification of one subgroup, the Zinc finger proteins, by an automated refinement of biological EXAFS data. In combination with scoring criteria inspired by high resolution crystal structures these refinements led to the identification of these motifs, that playing an important role in protein‐DNA and protein‐RNA interactions. Robust criteria were identified investigating several EXAFS data sets from different zinc binding proteins. For all structural zinc motifs the automated EXAFS refinement led to results consistent with published ones.