Differential effects of chloramphenicol on the growth and respiration of mammalian cells.

The antibiotics chloramphenicol, lincomycin and erythromycin have been shown to be specific inhibitors of mitOchondrial protein synthesis in yeast, both in vitro and in vivo --(Clark-Walker & Linnane, 1966, 1967; Linnane, Lamb, Christodoulou & Lukins, 1968). Yeast cells growing in the presence of any of these antibiotics can no longer synthesize the mitochondrial cytochromes 5, 3, b, and 2, but their growth in glucose medium is unaffected. The observations have been interpreted as indicating that in yeast the four insoluble cytochromes of the terminal electron transport system are synthesized by mitochondria, while protein synthesis by the cytoplasmic ribosomal system is not inhibited by these antibiotics.