Lobban M D, van Heyningen S
Department of Biochemistry, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
FEBS Lett. 1988 Jun 20;233(2):229-32. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(88)80432-0.
Thiols such as cysteine and dithiothreitol are substrates for the ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of pertussis toxin. When cysteine was incubated with NAD+ and toxin at pH 7.5, a product containing ADP-ribose and cysteine (presumably ADP-ribosylcysteine) was isolated by high-performance liquid chromatography, and characterized by its composition and release of AMP with phosphodiesterase. Cysteine has a Km of 105 mM at saturating NAD+ concentration. The ability of thiols to act as a substrate is one explanation for the very high concentrations (250 mM or greater) that have been observed to enhance the apparent NAD glycohydrolase activity of the toxin.
