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The assembly of bacterial toxins and virulence factors is critical to their function, but the regulation of assembly during infection has not been studied. We begin to address this question using anthrax toxin as a model. The protective antigen (PA) component of the toxin assembles into ring-shaped homooligomers that bind the two other enzyme components of the toxin, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), to form toxic complexes. To disrupt the host, these toxic complexes are endocytosed, such that the PA oligomer forms a membrane-spanning channel that LF and EF translocate through to enter the cytosol. Using single-channel electrophysiology, we show that PA channels contain two populations of conductance states, which correspond to two different PA pre-channel oligomers observed by electron microscopy-the well-described heptamer and a novel octamer. Mass spectrometry demonstrates that the PA octamer binds four LFs, and assembly routes leading to the octamer are populated with even-numbered, dimeric and tetrameric, PA intermediates. Both heptameric and octameric PA complexes can translocate LF and EF with similar rates and efficiencies. Here, we report a 3.2-A crystal structure of the PA octamer. The octamer comprises approximately 20-30% of the oligomers on cells, but outside of the cell, the octamer is more stable than the heptamer under physiological pH. Thus, the PA octamer is a physiological, stable, and active assembly state capable of forming lethal toxins that may withstand the hostile conditions encountered in the bloodstream. This assembly mechanism may provide a novel means to control cytotoxicity.

Individually, the three protein components of anthrax toxin are nontoxic, but when they assemble, they form active holotoxin complexes. The role of the protective antigen (PA) component of the toxin is to deliver the two other enzyme components, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), across the plasma membrane and into the cytoplasm of target cells. PA is produced as a proprotein, which must be proteolytically activated, and generally cell-surface activation is mediated by a furin-family protease. Activated PA can then assemble into one of two non-interconverting oligomers, a homoheptamer and homooctamer, which have unique properties. Herein we describe molecular determinants that influence the stoichiometry of PA in toxin complexes. By tethering PA Domain 4 to Domain 2 with two different length cross-links, we can control the relative proportions of PA heptamers and octamers. The longer cross-link favors octamer formation, whereas the shorter one favors formation of the heptamer. X-ray crystal structures of PA (up to 1.45 Å resolution), including these cross-linked PA constructs, reveal that a hinge-like movement of Domain 4 correlates with the relative preference for each oligomeric architecture. Furthermore, we report the conformation of the flexible loop containing the furin-cleavage site and show that for efficient processing, the furin site cannot be moved ~5 or 6 residues within the loop. We propose that there are different orientations of Domain 4 relative to the main body of PA that favor the formation of either the heptamer or the octamer.