Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of bacterial ribosomal protein L14

Based on amino-acid sequence homology, it is predicted that ribosomal protein L14 is a member of a recently identified family of structurally related RNA-binding proteins. To verify this, the gene for Bacillus stearothermophilus L14 has been cloned, and the protein has been purified and crystallized. The crystals are in space group C2 with cell dimensions a = 67.0, b = 32.7, c = 49.4 Å, and β = 101.8°, and there is one molecule in the asymmetric unit (V_m = 2.0 ų Da⁻¹). They are of high quality, and a native data set has been collected to a resolution of 1.6 Å, with an R_merge of 5.3%.