Question

In an experiment you add rifampicin and paramomycin to the ribosome and mRNA mixture. What will inhibit theribosomal translation efficiency and how?

(a) Rifampicin will prevent translation initiation

(b) Paramomycin will slow down translation

(c) Rifampicin will bind irreversibly to the ribosome and inactivate it

(d) Paramomycin will increase error rate

I got this question in an interview for job.

The question is from Ribosome in chapter Gene Expression : Translation of Cytogenetics

Answer 1

Right option is (d) Paramomycin will increase error rate

The explanation: Paramomycin acts as a ribosomal translation inhibitor while Rifampicin acts on RNA polymerase. Paramomycin actually increases the error rate of the translation thus producing wrong nonfunctional proteins ultimately killing the bacteria.