title: Detection of differences in the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of diphtheria toxin from Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Corynebacterium ulcerans causing extrapharyngeal infections.
abstract: While Corynebacterium ulcerans can mimic classical diphtheria, extrapharyngeal infections are extremely rare. Sequencing of the diphtheria toxin (DT)-encoding tox gene of two C. ulcerans isolates from extrapharyngeal infections revealed differences from C. diphtheriae DT sequences, mainly in the translocation and receptor-binding domains. C. ulcerans supernatants were much less potent than supernatant from C. diphtheriae. A C. ulcerans DT-specific PCR is described below.
authors.affiliation: National Consiliary Laboratory on Diphtheria, 80336 Munich, Germany. sing@m3401.mpk.med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sing
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hogardt
authors.forename: Suse
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bierschenk
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heesemann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003352:Corynebacterium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D003354:Corynebacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D003353:Corynebacterium diphtheriae / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010612:Pharyngitis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000382:microbiology; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004167:Diphtheria Toxin