Howard Florey and Ernst C
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain discovered its structure, and resistance to it derives from the secretion of enzymes that cleave the amide bond in its beta-lactam ring. It functions by inhibiting the transpeptidase by forming a covalent bond with a serine residue at the active site of the enzyme, and since this complex does not undergo deacylation, the inhibition is irreversible. Joshua Lederberg showed that bacteria succeptible to it could be grown in its precense in a hypertonic medium, thereby obtaining protoplasts. Consisting of a thiazolidine ring fused to a beta lactam ring to which a variable group is attached, FTP, identify this antibiotic first discovered by Arthur Fleming.
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain discovered its structure, and resistance to it derives from the secretion of enzymes that cleave the amide bond in its beta-lactam ring.
penicillin