Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)
In the elongation phase of translation, EF-Tu rapidly binds and delivers aminoacyl-tRNAs to the ribosome to ensure accurate and efficient incorporation. However, EF-Tu is a sequence specific binding protein and binds tRNAs with a 3.6 kcal/mol range in affinities. I have determined the sequence rules of tRNA binding to EF-Tu, and I am currently investigating the effects of modulating affinity of tRNAs to EF-Tu on their ability to incorporate.

The Adobe Flash Player plugin (version 8) is required to view the genealogy tree.
Download the plugin here.