Antibiotics acting on the translational machinery.

Despite the appearance of bacterial strains resistant to all clinical antibiotics, including vancomycin (the ‘last resort’), development of new antimicrobial agents has slowed during recent decades. To aid design of new antibiotics, we must develop a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of antibiotic action and antibiotic resistance. Several classes of antibiotics target the ribosome and ribosomal factors, and recent structural studies of the ribosome (Ban et al., 2000; Harms et al., 2001; Nissen et al., 2000; Schlünzen et al., 2000; Wimberly et al., 2000; Yusupov et al., 2001) and complexes of ribosomes with inhibitors (Brodersen et al., 2000; Pioletti et al., 2001; Schlünzen et al., 2001; Hansen et al., 2002; Bashan et al., 2003; Schlünzen et al., 2003) are now revealing the mechanisms underlying their inhibitory activity.