Dorrigocins: novel antifungal antibiotics that change the morphology of ras-transformed NIH/3T3 cells to that of normal cells. III. Biological properties and mechanism of action.

The dorrigocins are unique glutarimide antibiotics which were found to reverse the morphology of ras-transformed NIH/3T3 cells from a transformed phenotype to a normal one. The compounds also inhibited the release of yeast mating pheromone, a-factor. The activity of these compounds was not dependent on inhibition of prenylation or protein synthesis. Dorrigocin A was instead found to inhibit the carboxyl methylation in K-ras transformed cells.