A simple procedure for the purification of staphylococcal alpha-toxin.

Staphylococcal alpha-toxin was produced in a fluid medium based on acid hydrolysed casein using strain Wood 46. alpha-Toxin and several other proteins were precipitated from bacteria-free culture supernatants by heating at 60 degrees C for 20 min. The process was influenced by the pH of the solution. The toxin was completely inactivated and the precipitate contained a number of proteins if the pH of the solution was adjusted to 4.0-5.0. Heat precipitation of solutions having a pH of 6.0-7.0 resulted in a partial inactivation of alpha-toxin. The precipitates at this pH contained less of the additional proteins and had higher relative amounts of alpha-toxin than precipitates formed at a lower pH. The precipitate was dissolved in 8 M urea with the resultant activation of the haemolysin. Pure alpha-toxin with a molecular weight of 39,000 was obtained by electrophoresis in 8 M urea at pH 8.6 in ordinary tubes for polyacrylamide electrophoresis. The separation time was 45 min. The minor component of alpha-toxin with a pI of 7.4 could be demonstrated by the same method. A non-haemolytic protein with a molecular weight of 27,500 which existed in at least two charged forms, was shown to have an antigenic relationship to the toxin with a molecular weight of 39,000.