Subunit assembly and active site location in the structure of glutamate dehydrogenase

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Why is it important?

For many years various crystallography groups failed in the attempt to solve the structure of a mammalian GluDH despite the intense interest. We switched, therefore to an abundant bacterial GluDH which readily gave good diffracting crystals. This Sheffield collaboration produced the first high-resolution structure for any amino acid dehydrogenase and underpinned 20 years of subsequent mutagenesis. It also offered a basis for understanding adaptations in other GluDHs e.g. from extremophiles.