Construction of a three-dimensional structural model for tRNA methyltransferase

Abstract

Three-dimensional structures of proteins are essential for understanding their functions. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy are widely used experimental methods for structure determination of proteins. However, there is a large gap between the overwhelming number of available protein sequences and experimentally determined protein structures. Homology modeling plays a central role in fulfilling the above gap by determining protein structures. Here, we modeled a three-dimensional structure of tRNA (guanine-N 1-)- methyltransferase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tGNIMtase). It consists of 230 amino acids. The function of this protein is processing of the primary tRNA transcript to yield a functional tRNA.