Lomofungin inhibition of allophanate hydrolase synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The RNA polymerase inhibitor, lomofungin has been used to determine the half life of specific synthetic capacities (invertase and alpha-glucosidase) as well as that for gross protein synthesis. In both cases the studies conclude that cognate messenger RNAs decay with a half life of approximately 20 minutes. This antibiotic has been used to determine the half life of allophanate hydrolase specific synthetic capacity. We find that it decays with a half life of about three minutes; a value that agrees with the decay rates of allophanate hydrolase synthetic capacity following removal of inducer. These observations argue that mRNA may be metabolized by two separate routes in Saccharomyces.