[Kanamycin sulfate--an inducer of recA gene in Escherichia coli]

Kanamycin sulphate causes the efficient induction of recA gene, being an inhibitor of protein synthesis. Kanamycin is not known to damage the DNA structure. Possibly, the antibiotic ability to induce the SOS-genes is explained by activation of endogenous nucleases activity or by the increase of "alarmone" synthesis, the latter playing the "trigger" role in derepression of SOS-operon.