Mechanism of action of gentamicin.

Studies on the mode of action of gentamicin have been carried out in several laboratories [1-5]. From this work emerges a picture of gentamicin's action similar to that of streptomycin and other aminoglycosides. This also means that definitive knowledge of the mechanism of action of gentamicin does not yet exist and will most likely be gained when the problem of the action of the prototype, streptomycin, is solved. When gentamicin was added to a culture of Escherichia coli in exponential growth, the number of viable bacteria decreased by 3 decadic logarithms during 60 min (figure 1); the doubling time of the antibiotic-free control culture was 53 min. This result illustrates the marked bacteri-