Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1992 Jul 1;89(13):6207–6209. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.13.6207

Reversion of recombinant toxoids: mutations in diphtheria toxin that partially compensate for active-site deletions.

K P Killeen 1, V Escuyer 1, J J Mekalanos 1, R J Collier 1
PMCID: PMC402151  PMID: 1631110

Abstract

Deleting an important active-site residue of diphtheria toxin, glutamic acid-148, reduces the toxin's ADP-ribosyltransferase activity by a factor of greater than 10(4). We considered using this mutation to construct a recombinant toxoid for expression by live attenuated vaccines and explored second-site mutations that might cause reversion. Activity was partially restored by substituting glutamic acid for valine-147 or by extending the deletion by five residues toward the NH2 terminus, thereby placing glutamic acid-142 immediately adjacent to tyrosine-149. In both mutants the indicated glutamic acid may occupy a spatial locus similar to that of glutamic acid-148 in the unmutated protein. Simply deleting a crucial residue does not, therefore, provide confidence that a second-site mutation could not readily restore activity to a toxoid.

Full text

PDF
6207

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bloom B. R. Vaccines for the Third World. Nature. 1989 Nov 9;342(6246):115–120. doi: 10.1038/342115a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Carroll S. F., Collier R. J. Active site of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A. Glutamic acid 553 is photolabeled by NAD and shows functional homology with glutamic acid 148 of diphtheria toxin. J Biol Chem. 1987 Jun 25;262(18):8707–8711. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Carroll S. F., Collier R. J. NAD binding site of diphtheria toxin: identification of a residue within the nicotinamide subsite by photochemical modification with NAD. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Jun;81(11):3307–3311. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.11.3307. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Carroll S. F., McCloskey J. A., Crain P. F., Oppenheimer N. J., Marschner T. M., Collier R. J. Photoaffinity labeling of diphtheria toxin fragment A with NAD: structure of the photoproduct at position 148. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Nov;82(21):7237–7241. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.21.7237. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Choe S., Bennett M. J., Fujii G., Curmi P. M., Kantardjieff K. A., Collier R. J., Eisenberg D. The crystal structure of diphtheria toxin. Nature. 1992 May 21;357(6375):216–222. doi: 10.1038/357216a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Curtiss R., 3rd, Kelly S. M. Salmonella typhimurium deletion mutants lacking adenylate cyclase and cyclic AMP receptor protein are avirulent and immunogenic. Infect Immun. 1987 Dec;55(12):3035–3043. doi: 10.1128/iai.55.12.3035-3043.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Douglas C. M., Collier R. J. Exotoxin A of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: substitution of glutamic acid 553 with aspartic acid drastically reduces toxicity and enzymatic activity. J Bacteriol. 1987 Nov;169(11):4967–4971. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.11.4967-4971.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Lukac M., Pier G. B., Collier R. J. Toxoid of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A generated by deletion of an active-site residue. Infect Immun. 1988 Dec;56(12):3095–3098. doi: 10.1128/iai.56.12.3095-3098.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Sayers J. R., Schmidt W., Eckstein F. 5'-3' exonucleases in phosphorothioate-based oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Feb 11;16(3):791–802. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.3.791. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Studier F. W., Moffatt B. A. Use of bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase to direct selective high-level expression of cloned genes. J Mol Biol. 1986 May 5;189(1):113–130. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(86)90385-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Tweten R. K., Barbieri J. T., Collier R. J. Diphtheria toxin. Effect of substituting aspartic acid for glutamic acid 148 on ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. J Biol Chem. 1985 Sep 5;260(19):10392–10394. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES