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Chartreusin was lethal to both L1210 and P388 cells in culture with 90% of the cells being killed after a 24-hr exposure to 1.1 and 2.6 microgram/ml, respectively. The lethality of the drug increased in direct proportion to dose and exposure time. Both L1210 and Chinese hamster ovary cells in S phase were more sensitive to the lethality of the drug than were their corresponding non-S-phase cells. L1210 cells were partially synchronized by exposing an asynchronous culture to [methyl-3H]thymidine (20 Ci/mmol) and Colcemid for 3 hr. Synchronous culture of Chinese hamster ovary cells was established by planting mitotic cells. The progression of cells through the cell cycle was studied with flow microfluorometry both in the presence of the drug and after the drug had been washed off. In the presence of chartreusin the progression of mitotic cells into G1 was not affected. The movement of G1 cells into S was slower, and the movement of G2 cells into mitosis was blocked. When the drug was removed, the G2 to M block persisted for at least 4 hr but the progression of G1 cells to S was no longer inhibited.

L-[alphaS,5S]-alpha-amino-3-chloro-4,5-dihydro-5-isoxazoleacetic acid (NSC-163501), an antibiotic elaborated by Streptomyces sviceus, has been shown to be a powerful inhibitor of many mammalian and bacterial reactions involving the transfer of nitrogen from the gamma-carboxamide of L-glutamine. Thus, the utilization of L-glutamine for the synthesis of carbamyl phosphate, L-asparagine, guanosine-5'-monophosphate, cytidine-5'-triphosphate, N-formylglycinamidine ribonucleotide, NAD, glucosamine-6-phosphate, and anthranilic acid is strongly or totally inhibited by a concentration of NSC-163501 of 1 X 10(-3) M. L-Glutamate synthetase of Escherichia coli is only modestly inhibited and 5-phosphoribosylamine synthesis in fetal rat liver is comparatively refractory to inhibition. NSC-163501 treatment of L1210 cells growing in a low L-glutamine culture medium produced arrest in G or early S phase. Of the amino acids tested, only L-glutamine antagonized such growth inhibition.