Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of 23S RNA m²G2445 methyltransferase RlmL from Escherichia coli

The RlmL (YcbY) protein in Escherichia coli is an rRNA methyltransferase that is specific for m²G2445 modification of 23S RNA. The rlmL gene was cloned into the expression vector pET28a and expressed in the host E. coli strain BL21 (DE3). Recombinant protein with a six-histidine tag was purified by Ni²⁺-affinity chromatography followed by gel filtration. Crystals were grown using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method and a detergent was used as an additive to improve diffraction quality. The final crystals diffracted to 2.2 Å resolution. The crystals belonged to space group P2₁, with unit-cell parameters a = 73.6, b = 140.8, c = 102.9 Å, β = 102.3°. The crystal has a most probable solvent content of 62.8% with two molecules in the asymmetric unit.