noun
- An antibiotic compound that inhibits protein synthesis by mimicking the structure of aminoacyl-tRNA and causing premature chain termination in ribosomes.
Usage: technical; biochemistry; molecular biology
Examples
- Puromycin is commonly used in laboratory research to study protein synthesis mechanisms.
- The antibiotic puromycin binds to the ribosome and disrupts translation in bacterial cells.
- Researchers added puromycin to the cell culture to halt protein production.
- Puromycin's structural similarity to aminoacyl-tRNA makes it an effective translation inhibitor.
- In molecular biology experiments, puromycin helps scientists understand how ribosomes function.