Synthesis and secretion of Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase as a 200-kilodalton protein.

Bordetella pertussis, the etiological agent of whooping cough, synthesizes a calmodulin-sensitive adenylate cyclase that is suspected to play a major role in the virulence of this bacterium. We show that adenylate cyclase synthesized as a 200-kilodalton protein is the product of the cyaA gene and that various virulent Bordetella species secrete this high-molecular-weight polypeptide without apparent proteolytic processing. When submitted to trypsin digestion, the 200-kilodalton protein was converted to a stable 45- to 50-kilodalton species. This corresponds to the size of the enzyme previously purified from a culture supernatant. The molecular heterogeneity reported for the various identified forms of adenylate cyclase could therefore result in part from proteolytic degradation or molecular aggregation of the major 200-kilodalton form of the enzyme.