High level of soluble expression in Escherichia coli and characterisation of the CyaA pore-forming fragment from a Bordetella pertussis Thai clinical isolate.

Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin-haemolysin (CyaA) can permeabilise erythrocytes by forming lytic pores. Here, a gene segment encoding CyaA pore-forming (CyaA-PF) domain cloned from genomic DNA of B. pertussis Thai isolate was over-expressed in Escherichia coli as a 126-kDa soluble protein which cross-reacted with anti-RTX monoclonal antibody. By co-expressing with acyltransferase CyaC, the CyaA-PF protein was found palmitoylated at Lys(983). Unlike E. coli lysate with the non-acylated form, the lysate containing acylated CyaA-PF exhibited high haemolytic activity against sheep erythrocytes. This study presents that the recombinant CyaA-PF protein comprising pore-forming domain can be expressed separately as soluble native-folded precursor that conserves at least part of its functionality.