Partial amino acid sequence of the heavy and light chains of botulinum neurotoxin type A

The dichain (nicked) type A botulinum neurotoxin is a protein (mol. wt. 145,000) composed of a heavy and a light chain (mol. wt. 97,000 and 53,000, respectively) that are held together by disulfide bond(s). We report here the sequence of the first 17 amino acid residues of the light chain, and the first 10 residues of the heavy chain. The heavy chain was isolated from the neurotoxin by two different methods, while the light chain was isolated by the only available method. The identical amino acid sequence was found in both preparations of heavy chain. Two samples of the light chain isolated from two separately prepared batches of the neurotoxin also had identical sequences.