Effect of viomycin on dihydrostreptomycin binding to bacterial ribosomes.

Viomycin, a peptide antibiotic, reduced the amounts of dihydrostreptomycin bound to ribosomes of Myobacterium smegmatis and Escherichia coli, although they have different modes of action. The [3H]dihydrostreptomycin binding to ribosomes could not exchanged with streptomycin or dihydrostreptomycin, but not with unrelated antibiotics, namely, kanamycin, neomycin, spectinomycin, capreomycin, tuberactinomycin-N, chloramphenicol and erythromycin. We suggest that there is a significant interaction between the binding sites of viomycin and streptomycin on ribosomes.