Effect of Actidione (Cycloheximide) on Yeast Fermentation

Actidione, an antibiotic produced by Strepto-myces griseus, is highly active against a large number of yeasts but it has no marked anti-bacterial activity. Of 22 species of yeasts tested by Whiffen (1948), 9 were completely inhibited by 0.17 jig drug per ml; Saccharomyces cerevisae required 10,ug per ml and 5 species were not inhibited by 1000,ug per ml. There appears to be little in the literature regarding the mechanism of action of actidione except for the interesting finding by Kerridge (1957) that in concentrations in which it in-hibited growth of Saccharomyces mandshuricus (0.5 to 1,ug per ml), it had no effect on respiration or fermentation but it inhibited protein synthesis