Enacyloxin IIa, an inhibitor of protein biosynthesis that acts on elongation factor Tu and the ribosome

Abstract

This work analyzes the action of enacyloxin IIa, an inhibitor of bacterial protein biosynthesis. Enacyloxin IIa [IC50 on poly(Phe) synthesis ~70 nM] is shown to affect the interaction between elongation factor (EF) Tu and GTP or GDP; in particular, the dissociation of EF-Tu.GTP is strongly retarded, causing the K(d) of EF-Tu.GTP to decrease from 500 to 0.7 nM. In its presence, the migration velocity of both GTP- and GDP-bound EF-Tu on native PAGE is increased. The stimulation of EF-Tu.GDP dissociation by EF-Ts is inhibited. EF-Tu.GTP can still form a stable complex with aminoacyl-tRNA (aa-tRNA), but it no longer protects aa-tRNA against spontaneous deacylation, showing that the EF-Tu.GTP orientation with respect to the 3' end of aa-tRNA is modified. However, the EF-Tu-dependent binding of aa-tRNA to the ribosomal A-site is impaired only slightly by the antibiotic and the activity of the peptidyl-transferase center, as determined by puromycin reactivity, is not affected. In contrast, the C-terminal incorporation of Phe into poly(Phe)-tRNA bound to the P-site is inhibited, an effect that is observed if Phe-tRNA is bound to the A-site nonenzymatically as well. Thus, enacyloxin IIa can affect both EF-Tu and the ribosomal A-site directly, inducing an anomalous positioning of aa-tRNA, that inhibits the incorporation of the amino acid into the polypeptide chain. Therefore, it is the first antibiotic found to have a dual specificity targeted to EF-Tu and the ribosome.