Geneticin/Kanamycin; interchangeable?

[Steven Goldberg]

In article
<Pine.SOL.3.96.970711115134.16570A-100000 at ascc.artsci.wustl.edu>, Alex
Brands <abbrands at artsci.wustl.edu> wrote:

> I was planning to use kanamycin resistance as a selectable marker in
> yeast, and I aquired a construct from another lab that has a kanamycin
> resistance cassette.  However, my negative control plates revealed that
> the parent yeast (w303) was not sensitive to the kanamycin.  After talking
> to the other lab, I found out that they use something called Geneticin,
> (that name is a registered trademark of GIBCO) which is about 20 times
> more expensive than kanamycin.
> 

> So, is my kanamycin simply expired, or are yeast not sensitive to
> kanamycin?  Am I stuck with Geneticin?
> 
> 
> All help is appreciated very much!
> 
> Alex Brands
> Washington University

Sorry, you're stuck with the Geneticin (also known as G418).  Although the
kanamycin resistance factor inactivates both kanamycin and G418, only the
latter antibiotic is effective against eukaryotic cells.

Steve