Effect of ribosomal wash factors on inhibition by chloramphenicol

In vitro protein-synthesizing systems from Escherichia coli can be categorized as either chloramphenicol-sensitive or chloramphenicol-insensitive. The chloramphenicol-sensitive systems used in this study required the presence of factors removed from ribosomes with 1.0 m NH(4)Cl when chromatographically purified ribosomes were used for amino acid incorporation. These ribosomal wash factors inhibited but did not eliminate amino acid incorporation in chloramphenicol-insensitive systems. For both systems, addition of increasing amounts of the ribosomal wash factors increased the sensitivity to chloramphenicol inhibition.