A structurally novel staphylococcal protein A from the V8 strain

Protein A from the Staphylococcus aureus strain V8 has a molecular mass about 8000 Da less than that of known proteins A. The corresponding gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Sequence analysis of this structurally new protein A revealed that it lacked an IgG-binding domain (58 amino acids), and that it also lacked two octapeptide repetitions located in the membrane/wall attaching region. Contrary to what had been proposed previously, the first translated amino acid is probably not a leucine, but very likely a methionine located 12 residues upstream.