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The determination of the capping enzyme structure was a collaboration project between a group at Oxford University and a group at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York. The Oxford group expressed, purified and crystallized the enzyme and solved the structure. The Sloan-Kettering group supplied the plasmid encoding the enzyme.

Oxford University:
Kjell Hakansson
Aidan J. Doherty
Dale B. Wigley

Sloan-Kettering Institute:
C. Kiong Ho
Stewart Shuman

References:

1) Doherty, A.J., Hakansson, K., Ho, C.K., Shuman, S. & Wigley, D.B. (1997). Crystallization of the RNA guanylyltransferase o Chlorella virus PBCV-1. Acta Crystallogr. D53 482-484.

2) Hakansson, K., Doherty. A.J., Shuman, S. & Wigley, D.B. (1997). X-ray crystallography reveals a large conformational change during guanyl transfer by mRNA capping enzymes. Cell 89 545-553.

3) Hakansson, K. & Wigley, D.B. (1998). Structure of a complex between a cap analog and mRNA guanylyl transferase demonstrates the structural chemistry of RNA capping. Proc. Natl. Acad.Sci. USA. 95 1505-1510.

A) Capping chemistry
B) Sequence and conserved motifs
C) Structure of mRNA capping enzyme
D) Binding of cap analogue
E) Reaction mechanism
F) Authors and references

These capping enzyme homepages were constructed by Kjell.