Bacterial canker, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, is one of the most severe diseases of kiwifruit. It has become an international pandemic and threatens the sustainable development of kiwifruit production in all main kiwi-growing regions worldwide. Streptomycin has been the major bactericide for the control of kiwifruit canker, especially in Anhui Province, one of the main kiwifr...

The recent extensive use of antibacterial agents has been instrumental in developing new procedures in the study of bacterial inheritance. Much has been written on the genetic aspects of bacterial resistance to penicillin, streptomycin, and other chemotherapeutic agents, and it is now conceded that these resistant variants arise by spontaneous mutation. In the case of streptomycin there has als...

The history of the discovery and development of streptomycin is reviewed here from the personal standpoint of a member of Dr. Selman Waksman’s antibiotic screening research team. The team approach of eight individuals illustrates how the gradual enhancement of the screening methodology was developed. I illustrate three study periods with key aspects in the development of streptomycin which led ...

Demerec (1945) and Luria (1946), in studying the resistance of staphylococci to penicillin, found that for a given inoculum (approximately 300,000,000 bacteria) there was a variation in resistance of approximately tenfold for all of their strains; e.g., if the inoculum required 0.1 unit of penicillin for complete inhibition, many of the bacteria in the inoculum would be inhibited by as little a...

The mechanism of streptomycin action in tuberculosis still appears to be an open question. Although from the first suggestion of its use for treating tuberculous man, it was taken for granted that its action was simply that of a tuberculostatic agent in vivo, simulating the action noted in vitro in certain culture tests under definitely established conditions. There were a few enthusiasts who l...

Ribosomal rpsD mutations did not stimulate nonsense suppressor tRNAs in a general manner according to their increased ribosomal ambiguity and decreased proofreading efficiency. Streptomycin, which stimulates error production by blocking proofreading in vitro, did not increase efficiency of suppressor tRNAs in strains with normal or streptomycin-resistant (rpsL) ribosomes. It did so only in comb...

We have demonstrated that rpsL, encoding the S12 protein of the small ribosomal subunit, can be used as a counterselectable marker in Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Mutations in rpsL confer streptomycin resistance. Streptomycin susceptibility is dominant in an rpsL merodiploid, and streptomycin selects for the loss of wild-type rpsL carried in trans. This is the firs...

The determination of cerebrospinal fluid glucose is important in the diagnosis and prognosis of tuberculous meningitis. The restoration to normal of the characteristically low glucose values is considered to reflect the success of streptomycin therapy. Intrathecal injection of the antibiotic is usually employed in tuberculous meningitis, and attention has been drawn to the fact that streptomyci...

HE term “complex locus” implies a series of closely linked genetic deterTminants all of which produce similar or identical modifications in the phenotype of an organism. Much of the experimental work to be described is concerned with a series of this type conferring streptomycin resistance in Pneumococcus. BRYAN (1 961 ) has isolated spontaneous streptomycin-resistant mutants of Pneumococcus wh...

Streptomycin-sensitive 70s ribosomes which are dissociated into SOS and 30s particles by dialysis against 1 X lop4 M magnesium acetate, and then reassociated in 0.02 M magnesium acetate, differ from nondissociated 70s ribosomes in r4C-aminoacyl soluble ribonucleic acid (sRNA) binding. 1. Reassociated ribosomes bind about twice as much 14C!phenylalanyl-sRNA in the presence of polyuridylic acid a...