Adenyl cyclase in Bordetella pertussis vaccines

Brodetella pertussis organisms have a large amount of extracytoplasmic adenyl cyclase, part of which is found in the supernatant culture medium during exponential growth. The enzyme differs from previously studied bacterial adenyl cyclases in biochemical characteristics as well as in location. Several commercial pertussis vaccines were found to contain adenyl cyclase activity; this activity is probably due to the extracytoplasmic enzyme associated with and released from the whole cells in the vaccine.