Asparagine residue in the rho gene product is the modification site for botulinum ADP-ribosyltransferase.

We reported previously that the ADP-ribosyltransferase in C1 and D botulinum toxins specifically catalyzes ADP-ribosylation of an Mr 22,000 guanine nucleotide-binding protein and that this substrate named Gb (b = botulinum) has an amino acid sequence homologous to that deduced from the rho gene (Narumiya, S., Sekine, A., and Fujiwara, M. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 17255-17257). In this study we have determined the amino acid sequence at its ADP-ribosylation site. Purified substrate was [32P]ADP-ribosylated by C1 botulinum toxin and digested with trypsin. The radioactive peptides were isolated by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography and digested further either with protease V8, with proteases V8 and thermolysin, or with proline endopeptidase and thermolysin. By this procedure three radioactive peptides were obtained, and their amino acid sequences were X-Tyr-Val-Ala-Asp-Ile-Glu, X-Tyr, and Val-Phe-Glu-X-Tyr in which no amino acid peak was found in X. During the sequencing the radioactivity quantitatively adhered to the sequencing filter and was not eluted with either of the identified amino acid residues. Analysis of the protein without the ADP-ribosylation yielded the corresponding sequence as Thr-Val-Phe-Glu-Asn-Tyr which corresponds to Thr37-Tyr42 in the amino acid sequence deduced from the Aplysia rho gene. These results strongly suggest that the asparagine residue is the ADP-ribosylation site in the rho gene product. This ADP-ribose protein bond was stable in 0.5 M hydroxylamine at pH 7.5 at 37 degrees C for at least 5 h. The ADP-ribosylation of this protein affected neither its GTPase- nor its [35S]guanosine 5'-O-thiotriphosphate-binding activity.