Structure of the Drosophila melanogaster Rab6 GTPase at 1.4 Å resolution

Rab6 is a small GTPase that belongs to the p21 Ras superfamily. It is involved in vesicle trafficking between the Golgi apparatus and endosomes/ER in eukaryotes. The GDP-bound inactive protein undergoes conformational changes when the nucleotide is exchanged to GTP, allowing Rab6 to interact with a variety of different effector proteins. To further understand how these changes affect downstream protein binding, the crystal structure of Rab6 from Drosophila melanogaster has been solved to 1.4 Å resolution, the highest resolution for a Rab6 structure to date. The crystals belonged to space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a=116.5, b=42.71, c=86.86 Å, α=90, β=133.12, γ=90°. The model was refined to an R factor of 14.5% and an Rfree of 17.3%.