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. 1989 Aug;171(8):4518–4520. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.8.4518-4520.1989

Induction of ermC methylase in the absence of macrolide antibiotics and by pseudomonic acid A.

S K Kadam 1
PMCID: PMC210237  PMID: 2502538

Abstract

The methylase encoded by erm genes and induced by erythromycin modifies the 23S rRNA and confers resistance to macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B antibiotics. Induction is due to a posttranscriptional mechanism in which the inducer activates translation of methylase mRNA by binding to unmethylated (erythromycin-sensitive) ribosomes and stalling them in the leader region. It is shown in this study that pseudomonic acid A, an inhibitor of isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase, can also induce methylase synthesis. Isoleucine starvation has a similar effect on ribosomes translating the ermC leader region to cause induction of methylase synthesis. These observations support the requirements for ribosome stalling and destabilization of a stem-loop structure and demonstrate that stalling can occur without macrolide-bound ribosomes.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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