British Biophysical Society

Date:
1966-1967
Reference:
PP/CRI/E/1/14/16
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: British Biophysical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/29
    ERRORS IN TRANSLATION by J.Davies Institut Pasteur, Paris. Errors can be induced in the translation of polynucleotides in cell free extracts of Escherichia coli by various agents. Thus, the addition of aminoglycoside antibiotics (l) or organic solvents (2), or changes in the temperature (3,4) or cation concentration (1,3) cause the incorporation of wrong amino acids. Such errors could occur at any stage of the translation process, but only in the cases of aminoglyco sides, where the ribosome is involved (l), and organic solvents, which affect the formation and recognition of aminoacyl-sRNA (5), have the sites of action been identified. In vitro studies with aminoglycoside antibiotics have provided strong support for the mechanism proposed by Qorini and Kataja (6), to explain phenotypic suppression of mutations by these drugs. Experiments with chemically defined polynucleotides have allowed a study of the specificity of misreading induced by aminoglycosides. With streptomycin, for example, it is clear that only one base in a codon is misread at any one time and that the ^»'-nucleotide is most susceptible; in general only pyrimidine bases can be misread (7).
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