In vivo, at low concentrations (≤1μg/ml), the antibiotic lipiarmycin specifically inhibits RNA synthesis in
Bacillus subtilis. At a much higher concentration (100μg/ml), syntheses of other macromolecules such as DNA and protein also appear to be suppressed.
In vitro, the antibiotic causes 50% inhibition of DNA-dependent RNA-polymerase from
B. subtilis at a concentration of 0.6μg/ml and of that from
E. coliat 5-8μg/ml. The activity of
Escherichia coli DNA-polymerase I is inhibited 50% at 55-65μg/ml. Lipiarmycin prevents ribonucleoside triphosphate polymerization only if added prior to the association between RNA-polymerase and DNA, and does not affect the elongation rate of RNA chains at concentrations up to 100μg/ml. At that concentration, however, the antibiotic immediately blocks the polymerization of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates catalyzed by DNA-polymerase I.
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