Use of Fourier-Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy for Secondary Structure Determination of Staphylococcal Pore-Forming Toxins

Pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus produce a large number of exotoxins (1 ). Among these a family of single-chain leukotoxins of 32–34 kDa has been identified. They include α-toxin (or α-hemolysin), which is probably one of the best studied toxins (2 ), and a large group of bicomponent toxins formed by the leukocidins and the Γ-hemolysins (3 ). All these toxins share sequence homology (4 ) as well as functional similarity (5 ) which altogether suggest they probably have a significantly similar structural organization (6 ).