Purification and crystallization of the yeast translation elongation factor eEF3

A Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain expressing full-length histidine-tagged translation elongation factor 3 (eEF3) as the only form of the protein facilitated purification of the factor for both structural and functional studies. Additionally, an identical full-length form has been successfully expressed in Escherichia coli and a C-terminally truncated form of histidine-tagged eEF3 has been successfully expressed in E. coli and S. cerevisiae. Both forms have been crystallized and crystals of the truncated protein expressed in yeast diffract synchrotron radiation to a maximum resolution of 2.3 Å. A density-modified map derived from low-resolution SIRAS phases allows model building.