title: Nontoxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile lack the genes for both toxin A and toxin B.
abstract: A total of 39 toxigenic and 20 nontoxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile were tested for the presence of either toxin A or toxin B by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All toxigenic strains produced cytotoxin as assayed by using highly sensitive fetal lung fibroblasts and were positive for toxin A as well as toxin B in the PCR assay. All nontoxigenic strains failed to produce toxin and were negative in the PCR assay. This study shows that nontoxigenic strains of Clostridium difficile lack the toxin A as well as the toxin B gene.
authors.affiliation: Eijkman Winkler Laboratory for Medical Microbiology, University Hospital Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Fluit
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wolfhagen
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Verdonk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jansze
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torensma
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Verhoef
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004768:Enterotoxins; C041348:tcdA protein, Clostridium difficile; C031815:toxB protein, Clostridium difficile