Question

_____________ treated ribosomes will be able to carry out elongation and termination of previously initiated translation, but can’t initiate any new translation.

(a) Streptomycin

(b) Rifampicin

(c) Tetracyclin

(d) Colicin E3

The question was posed to me during a job interview.

My enquiry is from Initiation topic in division Gene Expression : Translation of Cytogenetics

Answer 1

Right choice is (d) Colicin E3

To explain I would say: Colicin e# effects initiation at the Shine and Dalgarno sequence, however, it has no effect on elongation of termination. Thus, it will prevent new initiation but will not halt already translating ribosomes.