Short peptides conferring resistance to macrolide antibiotics

Translation of specific short peptides can render the ribosome resistant to macrolide antibiotics such as erythromycin. Peptides act in cis upon the r ibosome. on which they have been translated. Amino acid sequence and size a re critical for peptide activity. Pentapeptides with different consensus se quences confer resistance to structurally different macrolide antibiotics, suggesting direct interaction between the peptide and the drug on the ribos ome. Translation of resistance peptides may result in expulsion of the macr olide antibiotics from the ribosome. The consensus sequence of peptides con ferring erythromycin resistance is similar to the sequence of the leader pe ptide involved in translational attenuation of erythromycin resistance gene s, indicating that a similar type of interaction between the nascent peptid e and antibiotics can occur in both cases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. A ll rights reserved.