Virtuelle (Nano) Welten PDB Molecule of the Month 82: Elongation Factors

Exploring the Structure

As is often the case with proteins that use GTP or ATP, elongation factors undergo large changes in shape while performing their jobs. You can see the GTP-powered motion of EF-Tu by comparing PDB entries 1eft, which has a GTP-like molecule bound, and 1tui, which has GDP bound. EF-2 (the yeast version of EF-G) also changes shape, as seen in PDB entries 1n0u and 1n0v. One has sordarin (an antifungal drug) bound, and the other has nothing bound to it. Notice how the large domain at the bottom swings from one structure to the next. In electron micrographic studies of ribosome function, a similar shape change has been observed.

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A list of 'elongation factors' related entries in the PDB as determined by a keyword search on September 1, 2006 is available. For more information on elongation factors, click here.