title: Clostridium perfringens Sporulation and Sporulation-Associated Toxin Production.
abstract: The ability of Clostridium perfringens to form spores plays a key role during the transmission of this Gram-positive bacterium to cause disease. Of particular note, the spores produced by food poisoning strains are often exceptionally resistant to food environment stresses such as heat, cold, and preservatives, which likely facilitates their survival in temperature-abused foods. The exceptional resistance properties of spores made by most type A food poisoning strains and some type C foodborne disease strains involve their production of a variant small acid-soluble protein-4 that binds more tightly to spore DNA than to the small acid-soluble protein-4 made by most other C. perfringens strains. Sporulation and germination by C. perfringens and Bacillus spp. share both similarities and differences. Finally, sporulation is essential for production of C. perfringens enterotoxin, which is responsible for the symptoms of C. perfringens type A food poisoning, the second most common bacterial foodborne disease in the United States. During this foodborne disease, C. perfringens is ingested with food and then, by using sporulation-specific alternate sigma factors, this bacterium sporulates and produces the enterotoxin in the intestines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
authors.forename: Jihong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, 920-8640, Chile.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paredes-Sabja
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology, College of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 15219.
authors.forename: Mahfuzur R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sarker
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: McClane
mesh_terms: D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins