Branched-chain-basic-region peptides ("bcBR") consisting of two bZIP basic regions connected through a C-terminal (NNepsilon)-N-alpha-lysine linkage bind to DNA with high affinity and high specificity. bcBR with two identical basic regions recognize 2-fold-symmetric DNA sites, and bcBR with two nonidentical basic regions recognize asymmetric DNA sites. Resin-linked bcBR ("bcBR beads"), which are compatible with one-bead/one-peptide combinatorial chemistry approaches, retain high-specificity DNA binding activity and permit high-throughput screening of DNA recognition properties.