Site-directed mutagenesis of EF-Tu

An elegant way to achieve a site-directed replacement of one or more amino acids in the protein is provided by genetically induced mutations into particular genes followed by expression of the mutant protein. This method was extensively used in the investigations of T. thermophilus EF-Tu. A compilation of mutants is presented in Tab. 19.3. In many cases the replacement of invariant and functionally important amino acids leads to the loss of the 

Glu55Leu Ribosome-induced GTPase affected unpublished 

Arg59Thr PoIy(Phe) syndi. affected, binding of aa-tRNA affected [47] 

Thr62Ala Nucleotide binding is affected, aa-tRNA binding is affected.  

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