The effect of the Zhang paper was not to activate genes through affecting DNA, but to suppress genes through an RNA-mediated process called RNAsilencing.
The paper in PNAS suggests that the actual positioning of the motifs is associated with small RNA molecules that are involved with a process called post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS).
Now a similar sea change may be afoot, thanks to a new technology called RNA interference, or RNAi, which allows scientists to stop a disease by silencing a particular gene.