G-418 sulfate, also known as geneticin, is an aminoglycoside antibiotic similar in structure to gentamicin B1. G418 sulfate (Geneticin) is used routinely in molecular genetics experiments for selecting eukaryotic transformants. It is commonly used in plant and mammalian cell culture as a selectable marker. G418 sulfate is freely soluble in water. Bacteria and algae require 5 µg/ml or less while animal cells may require 300-500 µg/ml.  

It functions by causing a chain of nonsense mutations during translation, ultimately resulting in inhibition of polypeptide synthesis and protein elongation. Resistance to G-418 is conferred through thenptll gene in plant cells and the neo gene in mammalian cells, which encode aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase. For gene selection applications, a kill curve can be made to determine the minimum effective G418 concentration to kill non-resistant cells. G418 has a long standing application as a gene selection antibiotic that has a powerful new role in the genome editing, utilizing the CRISPR/CAS9 system.

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