Crystals of the chemically synthesized acceptor stem of tRNA^Ala from Escherichia coli diffracting to high resolution

The acceptor stem of tRNA^Ala from E. coli has been chemically synthesized and crystallized. This duplex contains a G·U base pair in position 3–70, which is the main identity element for alanyl-tRNA synthetase from E. coli. The crystals are stable in the X-ray beam for a long period of time and diffract to 1.7 Å resolution. The monoclinic crystals reveal a C2 space group with a = 35.0, b = 47.5, c = 26.2 Å, β = 102.3° and one acceptor stem per asymmetric unit.