Participation of a guanine nucleotide-binding protein cascade in cholera toxin activation of adenylate cyclase.

Guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins are involved in several transmembrane signaling systems. Choleragen (cholera toxin) activates adenylate cyclase by catalyzing the ADP-ribosylation of Gs alpha, the stimulatory G protein of the cyclase system. This reaction is enhanced by another guanine nucleotide-binding protein termed ADP-ribosylation factor or ARF that was purified from bovine brain membranes [R. A. Kahn and A. G. Gilman, Journal of Biological Chemistry (1986) 261, 7906-7911]. It was recently found that this ARF also increases the NAD:agmatine and NAD:protein ADP-ribosyltransferase, NAD glycohydrolase and auto-ADP-ribosylation activities of the toxin. We have purified and characterized two soluble proteins from bovine brain that act in a similar fashion to enhance choleragen activity in each of these reactions. The membrane and soluble factors are all proteins of approximately 19 kDa that require GTP or GTP analogues for activity and are ADP-ribosylated by the toxin. The ARF proteins apparently interact directly with choleragen in a GTP-dependent fashion to increase its catalytic activity and thus are part of a G protein cascade through which the toxin activates adenylate cyclase. The physiological function of the ARF proteins, as well as their possible relationships to the ras oncogene products and/or the family of G proteins that includes Gs alpha, remains to be determined.