[Inhibition of protein synthesis by antibiotics].

Protein synthesis is a complex, multi-step process involving many enzymes as well as conformational alignment. However, the majority of antibiotics that block bacterial protein synthesis interfere with the processes at the 30S subunit or 50S subunit of the 70S bacterial ribosome. The aminoacyltRNA synthetases that activate each amino acid required for peptide synthesis are not antibiotic targets. Instead, the primary steps in the process that are attacked are (1) the formation of the 30S initiation complex (made up of mRNA, the 30S ribosomal subunit, and formyl-methionyl-transfer RNA), (2) the formation of the 70S ribosome by the 30S initiation complex and the 50S ribosome, and (3) the elongation process of assembling amino acids into a polypeptide.