Assembly of a ternary metallopeptide complex at specific DNA sites mediated by an AT-Hook adaptor.

We describe the nickel(II)-mediated self-assembly of a multimeric DNA binder composed by two metal-chelating peptides derived from a bZIP transcription factor ( brHis 2 ) and one short AT-hook domain equipped with two bipyridine ligands ( HkBpy 2 ). These peptides reversibly assemble in the presence of Ni(II) ions at selected DNA sequences of 13 base pairs.