Biological effects of the antibiotic brefeldin A (decumbin, cyanein, ascotoxin, synergisidin): a retrospective.

Brefeldin A has been recently characterized to act as an inhibitor of intracellular protein export with profound effects on the structure and function of the Golgi apparatus in animal cells. Manifold activities of the antibiotic (under different names) published in the 1960's and 1970's are reviewed: effects on fungal growth and morphogenesis, inhibition of mitosis in plant cells, cytotoxicity, cancerostatic, antiviral and antinematodal activity and peculiar effects on DNA, RNA and protein synthesis in microbial and animal cells.