Relative positions and orientations of the tRNA and of the RNase P protein resulting from the superimposition of the RNase P RNA from the crystal structure (blue) (Reiter et al. 2010) and the three-dimensional ab initio model (gold) (Tsai et al. 2003). The normalized root mean square deviation (nrmsd) by means of superimposition of phosphorus atoms from the RNase P RNA is 11.6 Å. Distances between elements from the tRNA and the protein are indicated on the picture. The large distance between the anticodon loops from the tRNAs results from a 35° rotation between the acceptor stems. The protein moieties have a 39° differential orientation and an offset of 16 Å (calculated with lsqman) (Kleywegt and Jones 1994).
