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

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.