Investigations on the Antiproliferative Effects of Amino Acid Antagonists Targeting for Aminoacyl‐tRNA Synthetases Part I ‐ The Antibacterial Effect

Amino acid antagonists with proven or potentially inhibitory activities on aminoacyl‐tRNA synthetases were tested for their antiproliferative effect against E. coli B. The compounds 4‐ and 6‐fluorotryptophan, 5‐methyltryptophan, selenocystine and ß‐(2‐thienyl)alanine gave strong growth inhibition in minimal medium, which disappeared after addition of structurally related natural amino acids or in an enriched broth. The inhibitory effect on amino‐acyl‐tRNA synthetases and the minimal inhibitory concentration for growth inhibition in minimal medium could not be correlated.