Staphylococcal alpha-toxin: oligomerization of hydrophilic monomers to form amphiphilic hexamers induced through contact with deoxycholate detergent micelles.

Native staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin is secreted as a hydrophilic polypeptide chain of Mr 34,000. The presence of deoxycholate above the critical micellar concentration induced the toxin monomers to self-associate, forming ring or cylindrical oligomers. The oligomers were amphiphilic and bound detergent. In deoxycholate solution, the protein-detergent complexes exhibited a sedimentation coefficient of 10.4 S. A Mr of 238,700 was determined by ultracentrifugation analyses at sedimentation equilibrium. Because quantitative detergent-binding studies indicated a protein/detergent ratio of approximately 5:1 (wt/wt), the protein moiety in each protein-detergent complex was determined to be approximately Mr 200000, corresponding to a hexamer of the native molecule. The amphiphilic toxin hexamers were ultrastructurally indistinguishable from the cytolytic, annular toxin complexes that form on and in biological target membranes. They bound lipid and could be incorporated into artificial lecithin lipid vesicles. The transition of toxin protein molecules from a hydrophilic monomer to an amphiphilic oligomer through self-association has thus been shown to be inducible solely through contact of the native protein molecules with an appropriate amphiphilic substrate.