text: A large group of bacterial exotoxins are referred to as "A/B toxins", in essence because they are formed from two subunits. The "A" subunit possesses enzyme activity, and is transferred to the host cell following a conformational change in the membrane-bound transport "B" subunit. Pertussis toxin is an exotoxin with six subunits (named S1 through S5&mdash;each complex contains two copies of S4). The subunits are arranged in A-B structure: the A component is enzymatically active and is formed from the S1 subunit, while the B component is the receptor-binding portion and is made up of subunits S2&ndash;S5. The subunits are encoded by ptx genes encoded on a large PT operon that also includes additional genes that encode Ptl proteins. Together, these proteins form the PT secretion complex.