Glycosylating Toxin of Clostridium perfringens

Clostridium perfringens type C strains that produce various toxins cause hemorrhagic noxious ulceration or mucousal necrosis of the small intestine in humans, pigs, cattle and chickens (Sakurai et al. 1997, Sakurai and Nagahama 2006). In humans, the bacteria cause necrotic enteritis, which is termed “pig-bel” (Sakurai and Nagahama 2006). C. perfringens has been classified into five types, A to E, according to the toxinogenicity of major extracellular toxins designated alpha-, beta-, epsilonand iota-toxins. The C. perfringens strains defined as type C show alphaand beta-, but not epsilonand iota-toxigenicities (Sakurai and Nagahama 2006). Type C strains produce alpha-toxin, beta-toxin, beta2-toxin, and perfringolysin O. Beta-toxin is known to be the primary pathogenic factor of necrotic enteritis in the type C strains (Tweten 2005, Sakurai and Nagahama 2006). Beta2-toxin is a toxin discovered in C. perfringens type C isolated from piglets with necrotic enteritis, and speculated to be important because its gene has been detected in most C. perfringens type C strains recovered from animals with clinical disease (Manteca et al. 2002, Waters et al. 2003).