| Species/Subspecies: | Clostridium botulinum, group III | ||||||||||||
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| Categories: | Causes hemolysis; spore forming; motile; notifiable diseases and bacteria | ||||||||||||
| Etymology: | Genus name: a small spindle. Species epithet: refers to sausage. | ||||||||||||
| Significance: | [Very important] | ||||||||||||
| Taxonomy: | Class Clostridia Order Clostridiales Family Clostridiaceae Genus Clostridium |
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| Type Strain: | Reference strains: Type C: ATCC 25766. Type D: ATCC 25767. | ||||||||||||
| Macromorphology (smell):
| Large greyish white colonies (5 mm in diameter) with very irregular edges. Gives β-hemolysis on blood agar. | ||||||||||||
| Micromorphology:
| Large spore forming rods (0.5-2.4 x 3.0-22.0 µm), which appear singly or in short chains. Most strains of C or D type are motile and have peritrichous flagella. | ||||||||||||
| Gram +/Gram -: | G+ (can be difficult to gram stain). | ||||||||||||
| Metabolism: | Anaerobic | ||||||||||||
| Catalase/Oxidase: | -/- | ||||||||||||
| Other Enzymes: | Esculinase -, lecithinase (-), tryptophanase (-). | ||||||||||||
| Fermentation of carbohydrates: | D-glucose ? lactose - maltose v L-rhamnose - sucrose - L-arabinose - cellobiose - D-mannitol - salicin - trehalose - glycerol ? inulin - raffinose - D-sorbitol - starch - |
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| Spec. Char.: | C. botulinum strains within group III are weakly proteolytic, but not saccharolytic. C.f. other C. botulinum types. | ||||||||||||
| Reservoir: | Meat, carcasses, dead invertebrates, maggots, rotting vegetation, silage of bad quality, hay or silage contaminated with dead rodents, bones. | ||||||||||||
| Disease: | Botulism is a serious and potentially fatal disease. C. botulinum-strains within group III is the most common cause of botulism or botulinus intoxication in animals. Botulism is usually an intoxication caused by intake of preformed toxin. It may also happen that spores of C. botulinum germinate in the intestine or in a deep wound and the bacteria may then start to produce toxin. This condition is termed a toxicoinfection.
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| Virulence Factors: | C. botulinum strains within group III produce botulinum toxin type C or D and the genes for these toxin are carried by a bacteriophage. There are in fact two toxins of type C: C1 and C2 and it is C1, that is the neurotoxin. Strains within group III are of toxin type C or D. There are also strains having a chimeric toxin gene, i.e. the gene consists of segments from both the botulinum toxin C gene and the botulinum toxin D gene. These strains will then produce a chimeric botulinum toxin type C/D.
The different toxin types have the same basic structure and mechanism of action, but are serologically distinct. Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin, which is similar to tetanospasmin in structure and mode of action, but they act on different parts of the nervous system. Botulinum toxin is (like tetanospasmin) composed of two protein subunits and one is a protease that destroys the fusion protein to which vesicles containing acetylcholine should bind. Thereby inhibiting the signal transduction between the efferent (= motoric) nerve and muscle cells by preventing vesicles from anchoring to the membrane to release acetylcholine. This results in a flaccid paralysis. C.f. Clostridium tetani. | ||||||||||||
| Genome Sequence: |
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| 16S rRNA Seq.: |
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| Taxonomy/phylogeny:
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About 180 differens species have been descibed within genus Clostridium. C. botulinum can be classified into four different phenotypic groups: I-IV. C. botulinum-strains within group III are most closely related to Clostridium novyi and Clostridium haemolyticum and not to any strain within the other three phenotypic groups of C. botulinum. | ||||||||||||
| Legislation: | In Sweden, botulism in animals and humans is notifiable to the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Public Health Agency of Sweden, respectively. Clostridium botulinum belongs to category A as a potential bioterrorism agent according to NIAID. | ||||||||||||
| Comment: | Clostridium botulinum actually represents four different species (phenotypic groups), all of which have at least one of the botulinum toxin genes. In the case of C. botulinum, you can really say that taxonomy is not consistent with phylogeny. The type strain is of toxin type A. | ||||||||||||
| Reference(s): | No. 4, 33, 123 | ||||||||||||
| Link: | Botulinum + Tetanus Toxin Mechanism | ||||||||||||
| Updated: | 2023-03-08 |