1) Alph toxin is a secretory glycosyltransferase which glycosylates the Rho family proteins of host and induces depolymerization of these family of proteins.
Additional Information
1) Alpha-toxin mimics post-translational modification of cellular proteins. 2) It is intracellularly acting cytotoxin acts on microfilament system of cell monolayers. 3) C. novyi alpha-toxin is a N-acetyl-glucosaminyltransferase and monoglycosyltransferase activity that modifies the Rho subtype proteins. 4) C. novyi alpha-toxin is the only member of the large clostridial cytotoxin family to accept UDP–N-acetylglucosamine as a nucleotide-sugar substrate, the other toxins exclusively use UDP-glucose. 5) alpha-toxin (toxin fragment alpha-551) has more affinity and higher transferase efficiency with UDP–N-acetyl-glucosamine compared to UDP-glucose. 6) Substitution of residues in alpha-toxin from Ser-385 and Ala-387 to isoleucine and glutamine, respectively, reversed the donor specificity of the toxin from UDP-N-acetylglucosamine to UDP-glucose.
Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg. Germany European Molecular Biology Laboratories, D-69012 Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany.
