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Science 26 December 1969:
Vol. 166. no. 3913, pp. 1621 - 1624
DOI: 10.1126/science.166.3913.1621
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Articles

Crystalline Transfer RNA: The Three-Dimensional Patterson Function at 12-Angstrom Resolution

Sung-Hou Kim 1 and Alexander Rich 1

1 Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139

An orthorhombic form of crystalline formylmethionine transter RNA has been obtained which contains one molecule as the asymmetric unit of the unit cell. Three-dimensional x-ray diffraction data have been collected up to a resolution of 12 angstroms, and from this a Patterson function has been calculated. The function contains an elongated ridge of interatomic vectors parallel to the c-axis of the crystal. Analysis of the function suggests that the molecules are elogated and dimerized in an overlapping antiparrael fashion along the c-axis. The dimer has a length near 109 angstroms and a width of 35 angstroms in one direction. The individual molecular length is approximately 80 angstroms with an irregular cross section measuring 25 by 35 angstrms.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
RNA Structure and the Roots of Protein Synthesis.
A. RICH (2001)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 66, 1-16
   Abstract »    PDF »
X-ray Diffraction Patterns of Transfer RNA Consistent with the Presence of Short Parallel Helices in the Molecule.
T. Sakurai, S. T. Rao, J. Rubin, and M. Sundaralingam (1971)
Science 172, 1234-1237
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)