Fig. 6.

Prolonged inhibition of protein synthesis leads to cell death. (A) With fast-dissociating inhibitors (magenta stars), the duration of protein synthesis shut-down is determined primarily by the timing of exposure to the antibiotic. Translation readily resumes upon the removal of the drug and cells can restart their growth. (B) With slowly dissociating antibiotics (blue stars), the translation downtime is prolonged due to the slow off-rate of the drug. During the extended translation down time depletion of critical cellular components prevents the resumption of translation and of cell growth.