The C-terminal, 23 kDa peptide of E. coli haemolysin 2001 contains all the information necessary for its secretion by the haemolysin (Hly) export machinery.

In this paper we show the construction of a plasmid pLG609 which carries the 3'-end of the haemolysin structural gene, hlyA under tac promoter control. Expression of pLG609 in an E. coli strain carrying the haemolysin export genes hlyB and hlyD led to the efficient secretion of the C-terminal, 23 kDa peptide of haemolysin. The discovery of a C-terminal topogenic sequence, which appears to be all that is required for secretion of the whole toxin, is so far quite unique in protein export.