Aminoglycoside antibiotics bind to bacterial ribosomes and inhibit protein synthesis. Eukaryotic ribosomes, in contrast, are not strongly inhibited by these molecules but show errors such as inaccurate translation and read-through of stop codons. Prokhorova et al. determined structures of the eukaryotic ribosome in complex with aminoglycoside antibiotics and investigated how these molecules alter the conformation of the ribosome. They found distinct binding sites for different classes of aminoglycosides and multiple possible binding sites on each ribosome. The conformational changes induced by these molecules suggest multiple mechanisms by which the antibiotics interfere with eukaryotic translation.
