Tetracyclines are bacteriostatic antibiotics and are very effective against multiplying microorganisms. Tetracycline passively crosses the bacterial membrane through porin channels and inhibits protein synthesis. Tetracycline binds to the 30S ribosomal subunit of bacteria and inhibits the binding of aminoacyl tRNA to the A site of the ribosome. Thus, the antibiotic prevents the binding of tRNA to the mRNA and inhibits protein synthesis.
Tetracyclines are a group of broad-spectrum antibiotics isolated from my Streptomyces bacteria (Streptomyces aureofaciens) and effective against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Chlortetracycline is the first tetracycline antibiotic to be discovered by Indian biochemists Yellapragada Subbarow and American plant physiologist Benjamin Minge Duggar in 1945 at Lederle Laboratories.
