During the past decade, strains of Bacteroides fragilis that produce an enterotoxin have been implicated in diarrheal disease in animals and humans. The extracellular enterotoxin has been purified and characterized as a single polypeptide (M r , ϳ20,000). Single specific primer-PCR was used to clone a portion of the B. fragilis enterotoxin gene. The recombinant protein expressed by the cloned gene fragment reacted with monospecific antibodies to B. fragilis enterotoxin by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblot analysis. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed a signature zinc-binding consensus motif (HEXXHXXGXXH/Met-turn) characteristic of metalloproteases termed metzincins. Sequence comparisons showed close identity to matrix metalloproteases (e.g., human fibroblast collagenase) within the zinc-binding and Met-turn region. Purified enterotoxin contained 1 g-atom of Zn 2؉ per molecule and hydrolyzed gelatin, azocoll, actin, tropomyosin, and fibrinogen. The enterotoxin also underwent autodigestion. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of two autodigestion products were identical to the deduced amino acid sequence of the recombinant enterotoxin and revealed cleavage at Cys-Leu and Ser-Leu peptide bonds. Gelatinase (type IV collagenase) activity comigrated with the toxin when analyzed by gel fractionation and zymography, indicating that protease activity is due to the enterotoxin and not to a contaminating protease(s). Optimal proteolytic activity occurred at 37؇C and pH 6.5. Primary proteolytic cleavage sites in actin were identified, revealing cleavage at Gly-Met and Thr-Leu peptide bonds. Enzymatic activity was inhibited by metal chelators but not by inhibitors of other classes of proteases. Additionally, cytotoxic activity of the enterotoxin on human carcinoma HT-29 cells was inhibited by acetoxymethyl ester EDTA. The metalloprotease activity of the enterotoxin suggests a possible mechanism for enterotoxicity and may have additional implications in the study of disease caused by B. fragilis.

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The toxigenic element of Clostridium difficile VPI 10463 contains a small open reading frame (ORF) immediately upstream of the toxin B gene (G. A. Hammond and J. L. Johnson, Microb. Pathog. 19:203-213, 1995). The deduced amino acid sequence of the ORF, which we have designated txeR, encodes a 22-kDa protein which contains a helix-turn-helix motif with sequence identity to DNA binding regulatory proteins. We used a DNA fragment containing the C. difficile toxin A repeating units (ARU) as a reporter gene to determine if txeR regulates expression from the toxin A and toxin B promoters in Escherichia coli. To test the affect of txeR on expression, we fused the ARU gene fragment in frame with the toxin promoters. The fusions expressed a 104-kDa protein that contained the epitopes for monoclonal antibody PCG-4, which we used to measure levels of recombinant ARU by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. When txeR was expressed in trans with the toxin B promoter-ARU fusion contained on separate low-copy-number plasmid, expression of ARU increased over 800-fold. Furthermore, when we tested the toxin A promoter fused to ARU, expression increased over 500-fold with txeR supplied in trans. Our results suggest that TxeR is a positive regulator that activates expression of the C. difficile toxins.

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