Inhibition of Protein Synthesis by Cyclo-heximide (Actidione) in Chlorella

Abstract

Cycloheximide is an antibiotic produced by Streptomyces griseus. It inhibits the growth of fungi^1,2, algae³, protozoa⁴ and higher plants⁵, but has no effect on bacterial growth¹. In yeast cells^6,7 and mammalian cells⁸ cycloheximide inhibits both protein and DNA synthesis simultaneously, whereas the inhibition of RNA synthesis is delayed. With intact cells, it was not possible to resolve the controversy over whether the primary effect of cycloheximide was on the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid or on the synthesis of protein. Investigations with extracts free of cells^9,10, however, showed that the primary effect of cycloheximide was to inhibit synthesis of protein, and that it did this by preventing the transfer of the amino-acids from the sRNA–amino-acid complex to the polypeptide chain.