Crystallization and preliminary X-ray investigation of uridine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli

Crystals of uridine phosphorylase from Escherichia coli K12 have been grown from solutions of polyethylene glycol 4000. The crystals are trigonal, space group R3; the hexagonal axes are a = 154.4 A and c = 49.4 A. The crystals are quite stable to x-rays and diffract beyond 2.6 A resolution. It appears that the molecule is a hexamer with a subunit molecular weight of 27,500 and utilizes the 3-fold symmetry of the space group, resulting in two subunits/asymmetric unit.