Crystallography matters ... more!

EF-Tu delivers aminoacyl-tRNA to the ribosome

The result of studies of molecules of biochemical importance using X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy is usually one or several 3D snapshots of the molecule of interest. However, one can learn much more about an enzyme’s mechanism of action by determining many structures along its functional pathway, in various conformational states or various ligands. These many snapshots can placed in order and when viewed quickly form a movie, like a children’s flip-book. This example, created by Martin Schmeing and Rebecca Voorhees of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, illustrates the decoding step of protein synthesis by the ribosome.

Category: Science & Technology. Duration: 1m 39s
Licence: Standard YouTube Licence