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Gene Cloning, Organization, and Expression of θ-Toxin of Clostridium perfringens

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Genetics and Molecular Biology of Anaerobic Bacteria

Part of the book series: Brock/Springer Series in Contemporary Bioscience ((BROCK/SPRINGER))

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Abstract

The dostridia produce a plethora of extracellular products. Some of these have been termed “toxins,” although not necessarily because they are lethal when administered to animals. Two toxins that are clearly toxic to animals are α-toxin and θ-toxin. Both toxins have been examined to a greater extent than most other extracellular products from Clostridium perfringens. The α-toxin (phospholipase C) has been termed the “lethal toxin” of C. perfringens; however, in the past commercial preparations of a-toxin prepared from C. perfringens were contaminated with θ-toxin (Smyth et al., 1975), which may have altered the results of many of these earlier studies. θ-toxin or perfringolysin O (PFO) is a thiol-activated cytolysin produced by C. perfringens that has been shown to be lethal to animals (Stevens et al., 1987).

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Authors
  1. Rodney K. Tweten
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unité des Anaérobies, Institut Pasteur, 75724, Paris, France

    Madaleine Sebald

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Tweten, R.K. (1993). Gene Cloning, Organization, and Expression of θ-Toxin of Clostridium perfringens . In: Sebald, M. (eds) Genetics and Molecular Biology of Anaerobic Bacteria. Brock/Springer Series in Contemporary Bioscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7087-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7087-5_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-7089-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-7087-5

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