Partial removal of bound transfer RNA from polysomes engaged in protein synthesis in vitro after addition of tetracycline

Abstract

The possibility that tetracycline might inhibit protein synthesis by preventing the association of tRNA with ribosomes has been investigated. The binding of 32P-labelled tRNA to polysomes was studied in a cell-free protein-synthesising system containing polysomes isolated from Bacillus megaterium KM and a high-speed supernatant from Escherichia coli B. Addition of tetracycline to the system was found to cause removal of up to about 25 % of the [ 32P]tRNA bound to the polysomes. It is suggested that tetracycline may compete with amino acyl-tRNA for binding to the ribosome-mRNA complex.