Functional Molecular Mapping of Archaeal Translation Initiation Factor 2

Eukaryotic and archaeal initiation factors 2 (e/aIF2) are heterotrimeric proteins (αβγ) carrying methionylated initiator tRNA to the small subunit of the ribosome. The three-dimensional structure of aIF2γ from the Archaea Pyrococcus abyssi was previously solved. This subunit forms the core of the heterotrimer. The α and β subunits bind the γ, but do not interact together. aIF2γ shows a high resemblance with elongation factor EF1-A. In this...