Which antibiotic inhibits interaction between tRNA and mRNA during bacterial protein synthesis?
- Neomycin
- Erythromycin
- Tetracycline
- Streptomycin
Answer
(4) Streptomycin
Solution
∵ Streptomycin binds to the 30S subunit of the bacterial (70S) ribosome.
⇒ It distorts the decoding site, so the anticodon of the aminoacyl-tRNA cannot pair correctly with the codon of the mRNA; the codons are misread and initiation is blocked.
⇒ Erythromycin acts on the 50S subunit and blocks translocation of the growing chain.
∴ Streptomycin inhibits the interaction between tRNA and mRNA during bacterial protein synthesis.
Answer: (4)