Structural details of the binding of guanosine diphosphate to elongation factor Tu from E. coli as studied by X-ray crystallography.

Structural details of the guanosine diphosphate binding to a modified form of elongation factor Tu from Escherichia coli, resulting from X-ray crystallographic studies, are reported. The protein elements that take part in the nucleotide binding are located in four loops connecting beta-strands with alpha-helices. These loops correspond to regions in primary sequences which show a high degree of homology when compared with other prokaryotic and eukaryotic elongation factors and initiation factor 2.