Occurrence of Diphthamide in Archaebacteria

We examined the nature of the diphtheria toxin fragment A recognition site in the protein synthesis translocating factor present in cell-free preparations from the archaebacteria Thermoplasma acidophilum and Halobacterium halobium. In agreement with earlier work (M. Kessel and F. Klink, Nature (London) 287:250-251, 1980), we found that extracts from these organisms contain a protein factor which is a substrate for the ADP-ribosylation reaction catalyzed by diphtheria toxin fragment A. However, the rate of the reaction was approximately 1,000 times slower than that typically observed with eucaryotic elongation factor 2. We also demonstrated the presence of diphthine (the deamidated form of diphthamide, i.e., 2-[3-carboxyamide-3-(trimethylammonio)propyl]histidine) in acid hydrolysates of H. halobium protein in amounts comparable to those found in hydrolysates of similar preparations from eucaryotic cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and HeLa). Diphthine could not be detected in hydrolysates of protein from the eubacterium Escherichia coli. Whereas both archaebacterial and eucaryotic elongation factors contain diphthamide, they differ importantly in other respects.