Intracellular localization of the dermonecrotic toxin of Bordetella pertussis

Localization of the heat-labile dermonecrotic toxin of Bordetella pertussis strain 114 grown in chemically defined Stainer-Scholte medium was studied by using skin reaction in 4-day-old suckling mice as the assay for toxin. Through log phase and into stationary phase of growth the toxin was cell associated and not detected in the culture supernatant. Only about 4% of the activity present in a suspension of lysed cells was detected in a suspension of whole cells, and the dermonecrotic activity was not released by subjecting whole cells to osmotic shock, a procedure that releases proteins from the periplasmic space of many gram-negative bacteria. After cell lysis and preparation of soluble and membrane fractions, 73 to 80% of the activity in the cell lysate was recovered in the soluble fraction, with only 3 to 6% present in a membrane fraction. Further evidence for the intracellular cytoplasmic localization of the dermonecrotic toxin was the insensitivity of the toxin to trypsin treatment of whole cells. Treatment of whole cells with trypsin (80 micrograms/ml) for 20 min at 37 degrees C did not decrease dermonecrotic or malate dehydrogenase activities, but did inhibit more than 95% of the extra-cytoplasmic adenylate cyclase activity. Identical trypsin treatment of a cell lysate decreased all the above activities by more than 90%.