Molecular Info®

Molecular Info® Copy Right © 2001 Institute of Molecular Development LLC

Structural basis for the interaction of antibiotics with the peptidyl transferase centre in eubacteria FRANK SCHLÜNZEN, RAZ ZARIVACH, JÖRG HARMS, ANAT BASHAN, ANTE TOCILJ, RENATE ALBRECHT, ADA YONATH & FRANÇOIS FRANCESCHI The Nature, October 2001, 413: 814 - 821. To facilitate rational drug design, structural analysis of the antibiotic interaction to ribosomes should be established. The high-resolution X-ray structures of the 50S ribosomal subunit of the eubacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, complexed with the clinically relevant antibiotics chloramphenicol, clindamycin and the three macrolides erythromycin, clarithromycin and roxithromycin, were determined. Antibiotic binding sites were composed exclusively of segments of 23S ribosomal RNA at the peptidyl transferase cavity and do not involve any interaction of the drugs with ribosomal proteins.