Objective To construct the recombinant plasmid pEGFP-N1/ZFP and pIRES2-EGFP/ZFP-flag and explore the possibility of engineering zinc finger protein (ZFP) as DNA binding domain of artificial transcription factor (ATF).   Methods Full length ZFP gene was synthesized and cloned into pEGFP-N1 and pIRES2-EGFP plasmids to construct the recombinant plasmids pEGFP-N1/ZFP and pIRES2-EGFP/ZFP-flag that were identified by colony PCR and sequencing. Recombinant plasmids were transformed into COS-7 cells by liposome DOTAP. The expressed EGFP was observed under fluorescent microscope and the ZFP expression was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot.   Results Recombinant plasmids pEGFP-N1/ZFP and pIRES2-EGFP/ZFP-flag were constructed correctly

which could express ZFP well in the transformed COS-7 cells.  Conclusion It is feasible that engineered artificial zinc finger proteins by bioinformatics technique can be expressed in eukaryotic cells.