What is Actidione

Actidione or Cycloheximide can be used as an experimental tool in molecular biology to determine the half-life of a protein. Treating cells with cycloheximide in a time-course experiment followed by Western blotting of the cell lysates for the protein of interest can show differences in protein half-life. Cycloheximide treatment provides the ability to observe the half-life of a protein without confounding contributions from transcription or translation.
It is used as a plant growth regulator to stimulate ethylene production. It is used as a rodenticide and other animal pesticide. It is also used in media to detect unwanted bacteria by suppressing yeasts and molds in beer fermentation.
The translational elongation freezing properties of Cycloheximide are also used for ribosome profiling / translational profiling. Translation is halted via the addition of cycloheximide, and the DNA/RNA in the cell is then nuclease treated. The ribosome-bound parts of RNA can then be sequenced.