Hygromycin B

Hygromycin B is an aminoglycoside antibiotic substance naturally produced by Streptomyces hygroscopicus, which also shows anthelmintic activity. Hygromycin B has been shown to effectively inhibit translocation of mRNA and tRNAs on the ribosome in both bacteria and eukaryotes and also has a subtle effect on decoding fidelity as it slightly increases aminoacyl tRNA (A-site tRNA) affinity. Suitable for the selection of cells transfected with Escherichia coli hygromycin resistance gene (hyg or hph), as well as for the maintenance of the Hygromycin phenotype of resistant cells. Consistent with its more specific effect on translocation, hygromycin B exhibits monophasic inhibition of polypeptide synthesis, suggesting that it binds to a single site on the ribosome.