Question

The drug streptomycin inhibits the process of

• A. prokaryotic translation
• B. eukaryotic translation
• C. prokaryotic transcription
• D. eukaryotic transcription

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

Streptomycin acts by inhibiting protein synthesis in bacteria via altering the structure of $30S$ subunit. This alteration results to mis-reading of mRNA code. The drug is a rapid bactericidal and more potent against extra cellular bacteria than intracellular one because of the fact that $M{g}^{2+}$ and $H_{3}P{O}_4^{2-}$ (ions present inside cell) decrease the streptomycin activity.