On the accumulation of short peptides in the presence of certain inhibitors of protein synthesis

The interaction of fusidic acid with peptidyl-transfer-ribonucleic-acid - ribosome complexes

The inhibitory action of fusidic acid on peptide-chain elongation was studied with systems in vitro directed by either polyuridylic acid or endogenous messenger (Escherichia coli polysomes washed with 1 M NH4Cl) or R17 RNA, and supplemented with either crude or purified elongation factors. In all cases strong inhibition of synthesis required high concentrations of the antibiotic (approx. 1 mM), while a similar inhibition of the EF-G-plus-ribosome-dependent GTP hydrolysis required between 10 and 100 times less antibiotic. Since most of the GTP hydrolysis observed was presumably due to free ribosomes (without aminoacyl-tRNA or peptidyl-tRNA), fusidic acid seemed to interact far more easily with these ribosomes than with ribosomes engaged in peptide-chain elongation. The role of the GDP-EF-G-ribosome-fusidic acid complex in the inhibition of polypeptide synthesis was assessed by measuring formation of this complex on polysomes engaged in peptide-chain elongation. Using purified elongation factors the complex formed on only 25-35% of ribosomes, as measured either by retention of [3H]GDP or by hydrolysis of [3H, gamma-32P]GTP. In contrast, with crude factors (S 100 extract) it formed on more than 70% of ribosomes. The results are compatible with the postulated role of the complex in polypeptide synthesis inhibition (blockade of the ribosomal acceptor site and subsequent inhibition of aminoacyl-tRNA binding) and indicate that formation of the complex takes place by overriding the control that prevents interaction of EF-G when the donor site is occupied by peptidyl-tRNA. In the polyuridylic-acid-directed system for synthesis of oligophenylalanine the antibiotic inhibits every round of peptide elongation, including dipeptide formation, to roughly the same extent.

Inhibitors of protein synthesis V. Irreversible interaction of antibiotics with an initiation complex

The initiation complex (t-complex) formed in a cell-free system (E. coli) from Ac-Phe-tRNA, poly(U) and washed ribosomes in the presence of initiation factors (ribosomal wash) and GTP, contains the Ac-Phe-tRNA bound quantitatively in a puromycin-reactive state. The t-complex is irreversibly inactivated by spiramycin with respect to its reactivity toward puromycin. The inactivated t-complex retains all of the Ac-Phe-tRNA bound, but it does not react with puromycin (2 x10-minus-3M) within 32 min at 25 degrees. In the case of another inhibitor protein synthesis, sparsomycin, the permanently "modified" t-complex not only retains all the bound Ac-Phe-tRNA but it can still react with puromycin. In the continuous presence of sparsomycin (1 x 10-minus-7M) the bound Ac-Phe-tRNA reacts quantitatively at a rate which is one-tenth the rate at which the t-complex reacts with puromycin, at low (6.25 x 10-minus-5M) or high (2 x 10-minus-3M) concentrations. These results are not in agreement with current views according to which aparsomycin binds to the ribosome reversibly at a single site with a KI in the range of 10-minus6-10-minus-7 M and according to which this stie is at the A'-site (puromycin site) of peptidyl transferase.