Final answer:
Ciprofloxacin is an antibiotic that inhibits DNA gyrase, a vital enzyme for bacterial DNA replication. Drugs like penicillin, streptomycin, and rifampicin target other processes such as cell wall synthesis, protein synthesis, and RNA polymerase respectively.
Step-by-step explanation:
An antibiotic that interferes with bacterial topoisomerase activity is ciprofloxacin, which specifically inhibits DNA gyrase. This comes from the class of antibacterials known as fluoroquinolones, which includes drugs like ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin. DNA gyrase is an essential bacterial enzyme that manages the supercoiling of DNA strands, allowing for replication and transcription processes. Ciprofloxacin's mechanism of action directly blocks the DNA replication pathway in bacteria, leading to their death. It is important to note that the mechanism of penicillin involves inhibiting cell wall synthesis and not nucleic acid synthesis, and streptomycin and other aminoglycosides target protein synthesis at the ribosomal level. Meanwhile, drugs like rifampicin inhibit RNA polymerase but not DNA ligase or DNA gyrase.