Two different lipid-associating domains have been identified in the B fragment of diphtheria toxin using automated Edman degradation of its cyanogen bromide peptides, secondary structure prediction analysis, and comparisons with known phospholipid-interacting proteins .The first domain is located in the highly hydrophilic (polarity index [PI] = 61 .0%) 9,000-dalton Nterminal region of fragment B . This region shows primary and predicted secondary structures dramatically similar to those found for the phospholipid headgroup-binding domains of human apolípoprotein A1 (surface lipid-associating domain) .The second domain is located in the highly hydrophobic (PI = 32.4%) middle region of fragment B . Its structure resembles that found for the membranous domain of intrinsic membrane proteins (transverse lipid-associating domain) .In contrast, the hydrophilic C-terminal 8,000-dalton region of fragment B (PI = 53 .8%) does not show structural similarity with lipid-associating domains .