The Gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes injects a -NAD ؉ glycohydrolase (SPN) into the cytosol of an infected host cell using the cytolysin-mediated translocation pathway. In this compartment, SPN accelerates the death of the host cell by an unknown mechanism that may involve its -NAD ؉ -dependent enzyme activities. SPN has been reported to possess the unique characteristic of not only catalyzing hydrolysis of -NAD ؉ , but also carrying out ADP-ribosyl cyclase and ADP- The enzymes that cleave the nicotinamide-ribosyl bond of -NAD ϩ to produce numerous small molecules are able to modulate various aspects of cellular function, including signal transduction, vascular activity, gene expression, calcium homeostasis, and cell death (reviewed in Refs. 1, 2). All of these enzymes hydrolyze -NAD ϩ to produce nicotinamide and adenosine diphosphoribose (ADPR) 3 (see Fig. 1 and Table 2). Interestingly, most enzymes within this class are multifunctional and can be further classified on the basis of the additional reactions that they can catalyze following the release of nicotinamide (see Fig. 1 and Table 2). The ADP-ribosyl cyclases (EC 3.2.2.6) convert enzyme-bound ADPR to cyclic ADPR (cADPR) (reviewed in Refs. Only the strict -NAD ϩ glycohydrolases (EC 3.2.2.5) are not capable of further catalysis of the products of the initial reaction, and, as a general rule, the cyclases and transferases do not catalyze each other's reactions (Fig. 1).An exception to the above rule, the Streptococcus pyogenes -NAD ϩ glycohydrolase (SPN, also known as Nga) is the only enzyme reported to possess all three activities (6 -9). These activities can contribute to S. pyogenes virulence as, after SPN is exported, the enzyme is injected across the host cell membrane into the cytosol by a process called cytolysin-mediated translocation (10, 11). Once in the cytosol, SPN likely contributes to the pathogenesis of the numerous different diseases that S. pyogenes can cause, including pharyngitis, impetigo, necrotizing faciitis rheumatic fever, or acute glomerulonephritis (12). The contribution of SPN to pathogenesis has been demonstrated in several model systems. For example, mutants of S. pyogenes engineered to lack SPN were avirulent in animal models of streptococcal infection (13), and cytosolic SPN was highly cytotoxic to yeast and to cultured epithelial cells (10,11,14). However, the mechanism for pathogenesis by SPN remains unknown. Given the number and diversity of the different diseases that S. pyogenes can cause, an understanding of the contribution of SPN to pathogenesis of any streptococcal disease requires a detailed characterization of its kinetic and catalytic properties.Until recently, characterization of the kinetic properties of SPN has been hindered due to difficulties in expression of recombinant SPN owing to its toxicity. Toxicity is so severe that expression plasmids containing the gene for SPN cannot be * This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grant AI064721 (to M. G. C.)...