Selman Waksman is credited with the discovery of an antibiotic that significantly advanced tuberculosis treatment. Which antibiotic is this?

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Streptomycin represents the pivotal advance in TB treatment tied to Selman Waksman. The breakthrough story is that Waksman and his team isolated streptomycin from a soil-dwelling Streptomyces species in 1943, showing for the first time an antibiotic with real efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mechanistically, streptomycin is an aminoglycoside that binds the bacterial 30S ribosomal subunit, causing misreading of mRNA and blocking protein synthesis. That action stops the growth of TB bacteria and, when used as part of combination therapy, dramatically improved outcomes and survival, transforming TB from a nearly untreatable disease to a manageable one. The other drugs listed are important in various contexts, but they are not the agent credited to Waksman for this groundbreaking TB advance: penicillin targets many bacteria but is not effective against TB due to its cell wall and growth characteristics; rifampin and tetracycline are valuable antibiotics but were not the major TB breakthrough attributed to Waksman, with rifampin coming from a different line of discovery and development.