Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of diaminopimelate epimerase from Escherichia coli

Diaminopimelate (DAP) epimerase (EC 5.1.1.7) catalyzes the penultimate step of lysine biosynthesis in bacteria and plants, converting L,L-diaminopimelate to meso-diaminopimelate. Here, the cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of DAP epimerase from Escherichia coli are presented. Crystals were obtained in space group P4₁2₁2 and diffracted to 2.0 Å resolution, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 89.4, c = 179.6 Å. Molecular replacement was conducted using Bacillus anthracis DAP epimerase as a search model and showed the presence of two molecules in the asymmetric unit, with an initial R_free of 0.456 and R_work of 0.416.