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. 1993 Sep;61(9):3583–3589. doi: 10.1128/iai.61.9.3583-3589.1993

CyaC-mediated activation is important not only for toxic but also for protective activities of Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase-hemolysin.

F Betsou 1, P Sebo 1, N Guiso 1
PMCID: PMC281051  PMID: 8359880

Abstract

Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase-hemolysin (AC-Hly), encoded by the cyaA gene, belongs to the RTX family of toxins with extensive glycine-rich repeats in the carboxy-terminal portion. AC-Hly possesses both adenylate cyclase toxic and hemolytic activities that depend on a posttranslational modification mediated by the product of the cyaC gene. An improved system for AC-Hly synthesis and activation in Escherichia coli was developed. The results show that with purified AC-Hly (i) increased expression of the cyaC gene leads to a higher proportion of activated AC-Hly, (ii) the increase in protective activity of the activated recombinant AC-Hly correlates with the increase in its invasive and hemolytic activities, and (iii) the activated recombinant AC-Hly, but not the nonactivated recombinant AC-Hly, is a protective antigen against B. pertussis infection in a murine respiratory model. This suggests that possibly an immunodominant epitope required for protective activity is linked to the CyaC-mediated modification. Surprisingly, the protective and hemolytic activities of activated recombinant AC-Hly were lower than those of AC-Hly produced by B. pertussis, while its invasive activity was higher. This indicates that the modification of AC-Hly in B. pertussis and that in E. coli may differ.

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Selected References

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