Towards the crystal structure elucidation of eukaryotic UDP-galactopyranose mutase

UDP-galactopyranose mutase (UGM) catalyzes the interconversion of UDP-galactopyranose and UDP-galactofuranose. Eukaryotic UGMs from Aspergillus fumigatus and Leishmania major have been purified to homogeneity by means of Ni²⁺-affinity chromatography and crystallized. Eukaryotic UGM structure elucidation was not straightforward owing to high pseudo-symmetry, twinning and very low anomalous signal. Phasing to 2.8 Å resolution using SAD was successful for L. major UGM. However, the maps could only be improved by iterative density modification and manual model building. High pseudo-symmetry and twinning prevented correct space-group assignment and the completion of structure refinement. The structure of A. fumigatus UGM to 2.52 Å resolution was determined by molecular replacement using the incomplete 2.8 Å resolution L. major UGM model.