ABSTRACT

Paromomycin binds specifically to a single type of binding site on the 70‐S streptomycin‐sensitive Escherichia coli ribosome. This site is different from that of dihydrostreptomycin since paromomycin binds to streptomycin‐resistant ribosomes and since dihydrostreptomycin does not compete for paromomycin binding. Paromomycin binding, unlike dihydrostreptomycin binding, is independent of changes in ribosome concentration but influenced by magnesium ion concentration. Moreover, paromomycin does not bind to the 30‐S subunit of the streptomycin‐sensitive ribosome, except in the presence of dihydrostreptomycin, which probably induces the conformational changes necessary for a paromomycin binding site. This induction does not occur with streptomycin‐resistant ribosomes. Neither antibiotic binds to the 50‐S subunit. In general, binding of the one antibiotic increases the number of sites available for binding of the other. Both antibiotics hibit marked non‐specific binding at high antibiotic/ribosome ratios. Competition studies have enabled the classification of other aminoglycosides according to their ability to compete for the paromomycin and dihydrostreptomycin binding sites. Derivatives structurally related to paromomycin compete for its binding, the degree of competition being related to antibacterial activity, but do not compete for dihydrostreptomycin binding; they, on the contrary, increase the number of dihydrostreptomycin binding sites. Neither gentamicin nor kanamycin derivatives, which induce a high level of misreading, nor kasugamycin and spectinomycin, which do not induce misreading, compete for paromomycin or dihydrostreptomycin binding sites. Other sites may be involved in the binding of these aminoglycosides and in inducing misreading.

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