Crystals of the Escherichia coli UDP-MurNAc-tripeptide D-Ala-D-Ala-adding protein (MurF), which catalyzes the formation of the last metabolite of the bacterial cell-wall building block, have been grown in hanging-drop vapor-diffusion trials using PEG 8K as a precipitating agent. The crystals belong to hexagonal space group P6(1) or P6(5), with unit-cell dimensions a = b = 74, c = 425 A. The asymmetric unit contains two molecules, with a crystal volume per protein mass (V(m)) of 3.4 A(3) Da(-1) and a solvent content of about 64% by volume. A native data set to 2.8 A resolution has been obtained from a frozen crystal using a synchrotron X-ray source.